It's a Dragon's Life - Rakkaan
by Spirit of Fury
Summary: Hi, there. I'm Rakkaan. I was seven when all this crazy stuff (a.k.a. my life) got even crazier. I blame Vihreä. After all, he is trouble incarnate. But hey, who can resist eyes like his? I'm the type of Fury who was born to be plagued by Trouble, ended up stuck with the most annoying dragon alive, and could still smile at the end of the day. And this is my story.
1. Dreams

**Hi, guys. Spirit of Fury here.**

 **So, this is my first story. (Never Afraid is a drabble, it doesn't count) I've already written up to Chapter 10, but I really want to see what the world thinks of my writing before I go anywhere.**

 **Ok, so Rakkaan (who is our main character here) wouldn't stop complaining about how she wanted to do the prologue. For the simple reasoning that if I let her win, the battle in my brain ends before it even starts and I avoid a headache, I said yes. If you are all ok with this, I'll hand over to our esteemed young friend now.**

 **I'm hungry, so I'll talk a little at the end. Right now. . . it's snack time.**

* * *

 _ **Prologue**_

* * *

It's a dragon's life out here. It's dangerous; seriously, I barely go a moon cycle without _something_ trying to kill me. If it isn't enough that this incredibly weird world continues to throw countless angry inhabitants at me, it seems that I am expected to endure an environment equally as cruel and unforgiving. Think about it; I live in a world that regularly experiences blizzards so thick you could swim in them, only has three seasons, and produces storms that can make even the bravest of the brave turn tail. Plus, did I mention I'm a teenager? Yeah, I live alone, with no-one to stand by me. Classic tale of tragedy, am I right?

So . . . I guess I should shut up and let you hear my story. Get comfy—you'll regret it later if you don't.

Right, if you are ready, then it's on with the show! Fury, give 'em the chapter . . . Fury? . . . Fury! Where did that bloody sneaky kid go?

* * *

 ** _Chapter 1 – Dreams_**

Rakkaan plunged through the heavy mist, rocketing in the direction of the cliff; her last stand-by. Her heart pounded relentlessly against her aching ribs, and she gasped for air that simply would not come fast enough. Cuts from unfriendly plant-life and their "owner" oozed dark, glistening blood. She took a turn sharp enough to make her head spin, and winced at the new pain that seemed to erupt from inside her skull. Her tail stung in fresh agony as it collided with a tree. Still, she forced herself onwards.

Rakkaan desperately tried to bite back a howl as another thorn bush sliced through the pads of her fore-paws. Spots danced blurrily before her eyes, twinkling in mocking of her struggle. More of the hot liquid she so badly needed trickled into the earth, leaving a trail of red. Her bruised and battered body begged to stop, but the menacing thud of footfalls close behind kept the injured teen moving. Unable to contain the cry of pain, she tripped and rolled under a tree, partially hidden by the large boulder she had been felled by.

The rush of heavy footsteps loomed closer, daring her to give away her pathetic hiding spot. They were so close. Surely he could hear her ragged breathing. But no, the angry male trudged right on by, muttering curses and smashing through thorn bushes as though they weren't covered in cruel spines. He probably couldn't feel them at all with a hide as thick and armoured as his.

As the sounds of his departure faded, Rakkaan sighed. She looked over herself, licking at her paw as she did. The bleeding stopped almost immediately as her saliva soaked into the raw cut. A cool, numb sensation spread through it, allowing her to feel the pain of her other injuries. Rakkaan stifled a groan of discomfort as she dragged her tail into view and surveyed the bruise on it. _Gods, like I don't have enough to worry about!_ She reached out and tentatively poked the dent—a hiss of self-pity whistled through her teeth immediately.

The thorns had scratched her up pretty badly. Thin, bleeding lines snaked all over her back, sides, wings and head. Rakkaan scowled at them.

Suddenly, an angry roar ripped through the atmosphere. Rakkaan leapt to her feet—a movement she almost instantly regretted as newly formed scabs came away—and leapt as quietly as she could away from the boulder. She zigzagged rapidly for a few spans, then shakily flapped over a particularly mean patch of thorns, heading as fast as she could for the cliff. As Rakkaan hobbled and staggered toward her destination the un-nerving roars grew louder, keeping her at a terrified lope.

Too soon her heart was hammering unevenly again, air wheezing roughly in and out of her lungs, depriving her brain of oxygen. Her vision blurred once more. _Gods, you're unfit, Rakkaan,_ a mocking voice in her head taunted.

When the cliff finally came into view, hope soared from deep within Rakkaan's throbbing chest. Her legs forgot to complain at the terrible onslaught of rough terrain they had pounded so mercilessly over. Her head cleared some, allowing her to see straight once more. _Finally!_ A tiny voice shrieked inside her brain with joy, and started to dance in celebration. But then a bone-chilling yowl echoed menacingly from the fog behind Rakkaan, spurring her into action.

With a steadying breath, the teenager charged toward the edge . . . and dove straight over. Her pursuer arrived at the rocky outcrop mere moments later, bursting out of the forest quicker than a demon fleeing the wrath of the gods. He cursed loudly. Not a single trace remained of his prey, save for a lingering, jumbled scent and a faint echo of her last whistle. He looked down at his talons. Flecks of dark liquid splattered the ground all around the expanse of dirt and rock.

Unknown to the foul creature, Rakkaan stood stiffly within firing range of him. The teenager kept a wary eye fixed above her, searching the rock for any signs of movement. The beastly young male cursed colourfully again, making Rakkaan flinch. She listened intently as he scuffled around the bare outcrop for a while, barely allowing herself to breathe. Suddenly his thundering footsteps stopped. His slimy voice permeated the air, echoing down through the rocks in such a fashion that it distorted horribly. The words oozed through her being like the blood from her cuts. She shuddered violently, and her breath caught in her throat. When they finally sunk in, Rakkaan vowed never to return to the island ever again. The male stalked around the cliff edge for another small eternity, then gave up and turned tail. Only when his snarled complaints and footfalls grew too faint to hear did she dare breathe again.

A heavy sigh escaped her. 'Too close. Far, _far_ too close,' she mumbled to herself. As she allowed her aching body to relax, she glanced back at her wings, which were cheerily decorated with a hollering chorus of thorn-marks. They had saved her, and she hadn't been very stable in her flight. You couldn't blame her; she _was_ five years from maturity. Despite being shock-proof, she had learned the hard way that young dragons weren't indestructible. Rakkaan had only got back in the air properly a month ago—before that it was gliding desperately with the incentive of freezing river rapids to keep her airborne. A flicker of remembered pain fizzed through her port wing. The young dragoness' ears drooped pathetically at the memories it had brought.

 _If only Tulinen were still—_ 'No! Don't you dare think about it!' Her claws ripped through the stone beneath her like it was soft wood. _We'll kill that bastard for what he did. We'll rip out his eyes and tear off his wings and leave him for dead . . . After we roast him from the inside out._ 'Yes. . .' Rakkaan spat.

With a tremendous effort, she forced the ugly thoughts from her mind, re-burying them as deep as she could go. Once she had re-emerged, the young dragoness began to clean and seal her many wounds. She sat for more than an hour, fussing over the uglier gashes and trying to cover every last cut with a generous seal of saliva. It was messy, painstaking work; blood pooled around her as she made progress, reopening wounds where necessary. Once she was satisfied, Rakkaan moved and chose to stare at the shining orbs that littered the night sky. Stars held a lot of meaning for the young'un. While most just saw them and never thought twice, Rakkaan was mesmerised by their ethereal beauty, those untouchable lights so far beyond her reach, yet still close by. The stars had always been her escape, and always would be. She had sworn it that first night of loneliness.

Hours later, a sleep-crafted sigh slipped from her maw, her eyes only seeing the constellations she loved so dearly in her dreams. The raven-black contours of the lone dragoness' form relaxed, melting further into the darkness. If anyone had come across the slumbering Fury, they might have sworn the very rocks had come to life. If they had known better, they would have fled as quietly as possible. The more stupid and daring may have stayed to watch the feared species, so they might brag about just how brave they were. That is, if they survived the encounter.

Idiotic dragons.

Unfortunately for Rakkaan, those star-filled dreams would quickly turn into nightmares. The same ones she had the majority of nights during her existence as a lone Fury. The ones that left her blood roaring and her nerves dancing a precarious jig that bordered hysterics. The slumped form tensed in the moonlight, the pale rays reflecting slightly off her maturing scales. As the dream twisted, Rakkaan moaned. Despite her hatred of the nightmares, she was going to be glad for these later.

* * *

 _It wasn't so much that she experienced the nightmare than watched it. There was dark liquid everywhere, and a very exhausted Rakkaan slugged and sloshed and splashed through it. Rakkaan could sense her counterpart's emotions. Despair and confusion reigned. A sense of soul-crushing loss also echoed through their link, but this time, it felt different. Rakkaan knew that, and it made no sense to her. She had been familiar with loss for most of her life, but there was something . . . new. As if the dream her had never felt it before. The agony of the pain in her counterpart's heart threatened to rip her apart from the inside. Then Rakkaan saw them. Glistening sharply in the other Rakkaan's eyes were tears. They burst from the dam of her self-control and rolled freely down her face, hanging momentarily from her top lip before plummeting into the expanse of dark liquid. Without any warning, multitudes of dragon bodies appeared, and the dark liquid found a current that tugged at the mourning dragoness' legs. All sorts of pale, mangled forms drifted slowly by, from Warbling Spine-shooters to Owl-faced Hidden-wings to hatchling Fierce Fledglings. Then Rakkaan suddenly found herself—well, the other her—standing over a body on the bank. It wasn't just any dragon, the horrified dragoness discovered; it was a Fury. Among all the dead, the large male was gasping horribly, air wheezing in and out of his punctured lung. Blood leaked from his raw wounds, but through some innate strength he lifted his head to gaze at the other her._

 _'_ _Rakkaan,' he rasped. 'Please, find him—' the dragon the other her kept thinking was named Vihreä was cut off as he coughed hard, spitting up blood. 'He can help. . . I need . . . need him. Please, Rakkaan.'_

 _Dream her nodded, tears still streaming. 'I will. Just hang on.' Rakkaan watched herself leap into the air with a frightening conviction and tear off into the darkness, roaring something she couldn't really understand. A name, perhaps._

 _Vihreä moaned suddenly, his less twisted wing curling in painfully close. He desperately pressed it to the gaping hole in his side, which seeped blood a similar shade to the sticky life that had permeated the river and stained it so. Rakkaan felt sick as she continued to look down at his suffering form. Before she could really react to his anguished cries, a scream ripped the world apart. The other Rakkaan rocketed toward him. But she was alone. Whoever he had needed her to find wasn't there. 'I'm sorry, Vihreä. I can't. . .' Her voice trailed as it broke, and she huddled close to the dying male. She stayed still for a long time, tears still falling. The dragoness shook violently as her tears turned to choking sobs and Vihreä weakly stretched a wing over her. They lay together, a pool of sorrow and darkness in a red-stained world. Suddenly, Vihreä's breathing turned more ragged, and his green eyes rolled so far back that the pupils had completely disappeared. 'Vihreä? Vihreä! No! Stay with me, please! Don't leave! Just hold on a little longer!' His whole body tensed. 'No! No, please! Don't do this to me, Vihreä!' The great Fury shuddered beside her, then went completely limp. '_ Vihreä! _No! No no no no no! Vihreä please!' The young dragoness sagged against him, giving a final nudge. 'Please. . .' she whispered._

* * *

Rakkaan gasped and leapt to her feet in a flash of darkness. Droplets of water hurtled abusively from the black on black clouds above, bouncing off her scales and seeping through to chill her already cold bones. She hissed at the storm and fluorescent blue lightning flashed in an angry response, punctuated by a solid boom from the clouds that sheltered it. Surely the world could leave her in peace for _one_ night. _One_ , freaking, night. Rakkaan snarled as thunder roared again, then spread her wings and glanced skyward.

With a final curse thrown at nature, the young Fury bounded up, flapping as hard as she could force her tired and stiffened muscles. She quickly discovered that it simply hurt too much for a clean, vertical ascent, so she took to spiralling and clawing up small ledges and cursing the rain-slick rock.

Only when she had made the last overhang and scurried under a tree did she think of the nightmare. That same, stupid nightmare that flashed through her head occasionally after escaping another monstrous tyrant of a dragon.

Whoever Vihreä really was, whatever had happened that had twisted her memories like that, must have suffered greatly. But then something dawned on her, and she shoved the idea away. How many dragons had she lost, how many dragons had died because of her? Their faces flashed through her mind, some still living, but most a re-surfacing image of their contorted faces in death. _Ashbringer, Kell, Tulinen, Ochre, Snowbird, Iceflower, Red Terror, Tähti,_ _Tumma, Atlas, North,_ her heart wrenched at the next faces, faded with the age of the memory, and still smouldering with pain. _River and Stormcloud._ Her parents.

Yes, that had to be it. She had experienced too much death, too much sorrow and hurt too early. She was bloody cursed, or at least felt that way. The deaths haunted her waking life as well as her dreams, and Rakkaan was almost certain that if something didn't change, she was going to go insane. The betrayals were all too fresh, wounds to her soul that still bled. Her past manipulated her outlook, Rakkaan knew that well enough. She had given up on trusting dragons the day Tulinen had been murdered. As far as dragons go, Furies were the most suspicious and conservative. The young dragon could have probably put most of her kin to shame if they were ever compared. Last year she hadn't even trusted the water in the lake once she found out that a certain Timberjack controlled the territory.

The rain pattered on, drumming out a beat that pounded relentlessly in Rakkaan's skull, even after she had fallen asleep.

* * *

 **A/N; So. . .**

 **Should I continue to write this?**

 **I do not care if I have to get off my comfy chair, on my knees, and grovel at your feet. I _beg_ you to please review. Even just a short one. It means the world to me. **

**Wait, scratch that. It means _Dakota_ to me, because he is one of the most important things in my world.**

 **. . .**

 **Please?**

 **Also, Rakkaan wanted to say something.**

 _ **Hey there. . . strange humans. Um, uh. . . (wow this is tougher than I thought it would be) Um.**_

 _ **Wait, I've got it!**_

 _ **Look, guys, this may seem a little boring and everything, but Fury really wants to go somewhere with this story. I know there is no Toothless in here yet, and that is probably what you were looking for, but I promise, he is a huge part of this story. It's just. . . a little hard to see, unless you know**_ **w** **hat** _ **to look for. For his sake, and Fury's, stick around!**_

 **Right! Thank you, Rakkaan, for that inspirational speech. Bye, now.**

 **Spirit of Fury**

 **Remember, _review!_**


	2. A New Home

**Hi, again guys. Thanks to all the wonderful people who took the time to read this story (even if you didn't review). After all, if you didn't write a flame saying how awful you think it was, that's a thumbs up to continue, right?**

 **I dedicate this story, to a dear friend of mine who left this crappy planet far too soon. You are forever in my heart, girl!**

 **Chapter Dedication; yesboss21, thank you so much for your kind review!**

 **Thanks to all the people who read chapter one, too.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2 – A New Home**_

Rakkaan had risen before the sun had graced the frozen north with its warmth, chasing away the stars and comforts of darkness. She was half-way across a small ocean before the golden orb had made its peak, raw terror keeping her wings from giving out. She really _was_ unfit. Despite the new source of fuel, Rakkaan spent most of her flight in fear of falling into the ocean and never coming out. As the day trickled past, she found herself dipping lower to the waves, gliding on as many thermals as possible. Her wings ached, pulsing repeatedly as she forced more air underneath her. She felt her ear flaps drooping, her tail sagging, her wings straining. When a speck of land appeared in the distance Rakkaan's wings seized up in joy and complaint. By dusk, the lone Fury had found the small cluster of islands and was made drowsy by the three measly fish she had devoured. _You can check it out properly in the morning,_ she told herself mid-yawn. The dragoness wandered away from the pristine little beach she had washed up on—she had fallen into the ocean a few theifirs from shore—and flapped tiredly up the sole mountain on the island. She selected her favourite cave; a deep, spilt-cavern hideaway with a snarling exit. Rakkaan curled up gracefully on the stone at the very lip, staring out across her newest home. Yes, she definitely liked this island. It was so peaceful, so cosy in its rolling contours and secretive spots. So, in relative relaxation, she watched the ocean, roaring and crashing away at the beach like it was the end of the world. The pale moonlight seemed to shimmer and slide across the sand until it met the sea, where it played in dazzling fragments over the cresting waves. It was just one of those ordinary things that could be made extraordinary by the light of the moon.

For what felt like the first time, Rakkaan slept peacefully, the stars gazing down upon her with a mighty love no one would ever notice.

As per normal, the Fury woke before dawn, choosing to scramble and claw her way up to the mountain's peak for some exercise. Once there, she basked in the rays of the rising sun, soaking up as much warmth as possible and easing the tension from her shaking limbs. When they were no longer stiff with cold Rakkaan launched into the air. She began swooping and dipping and fluttering all over the mountain-side, wings still aching from her arduous journey. As she scanned the layout of the place, she saw something amazing. Tucked away so that she couldn't see it around the cliff were clusters of thick, sky-piercing spines. At first she faltered, thinking it was one of the Great Dragons, but dead. However, as she regained control, Rakkaan realised that the spines were stone. She filed the discovery in her head and reminded herself to explore it later.

The dragoness landed momentarily. She quickly drew up an exercise routine in her head and launched back into the air.

Eventually, she grew bored with the technical manoeuvres she had invented and plunged in a steep nose dive down the more sheer part of the mountain, muscles screaming from the torturous manoeuvres they had undergone. The dark dragon skimmed the rocky surface, screaming in joy at the whoosh of the air that snagged at her tail and tugged at her ears. Rakkaan knew full well that her wings wouldn't hold against the strain if she pulled up too late, so the wind snapped under her wings to slow her fall with more than 150 theifirs of room. She flared her tail and secondary wings as well, increasing drag as much as possible. By the time Rakkaan had reached the trees she had come to almost a complete standstill, twisting backwards in a painful loop to remain aloft. With nerves alight and senses heightened, the Fury angled in the direction of the lake, intent on catching herself some breakfast.

Maybe Rakkaan would be able to catch a break.

She felt something warm trickling along her wings. Her head twisted back, and caught glimpses of blood tracing patterns across her wings. Her cuts had opened up again.

You know what she had thought a few moments ago? Yeah. Never mind.

* * *

It had been almost a moon cycle. A new record for going without trouble this Pattern. Each day Rakkaan had risen to greet the cool glow of pre-dawn, fearing that her life may take yet another spiral into confusion and throw her deeper into the lake of worries that constantly threatened to drown her. Each evening she had rocketed at top speed around her new territory, investigating for any signs of intrusion and making her own mark on the place. Each morning had been spent relentlessly building up stamina and muscular control in her wings and forcing her lungs to match the power needed. And every single afternoon was spent either gathering fish or making her cave a tiny bit cosier. Yet despite the realisation of her peaceful situation, she refused bluntly to lower her guard. Call her paranoid all you like, but she still wouldn't.

So, on this morning, Rakkaan was panting heavily, pushing herself through the relentless and gruelling exercise routine she had set herself. Her head had stopped spinning so much in this part after about the seventh day. She rolled her shoulders and shoved her wings downward with enough force to knock over a small tree, snapping out her tailfins to keep herself from wobbling off to the side. As she rose, her body tilted backward, her head leading as the dragoness performed yet another backward loop. Her muscles were getting stronger; she only lost a span before building into the next loop. As she did, she purred back at her wings, which had fully healed.

Fifteen dizzying loops later, Rakkaan rocketed up high above the mountain. She paused for a moment to check her altitude in comparison with the rough peak, then plunged down. She tucked her tail fins and secondaries in close, making sure that her wings followed suit. A sleek black arrow was what the Fury represented in her headlong plummet toward to unforgiving rock. Once Rakkaan was sure she had built enough speed for a little strain, she let the wind catch her. A familiar shriek slipped from her as the dragoness continued her fall, gradually slowing as her fully spread and slightly hunched wings complained. She regained perfect control about five spans from the mountain's peak, bringing her wings down hard and slow. The Fury growled in annoyance. _At least it's_ some _improvement._ She remembered too clearly that first day, when she had misjudged the distance and nearly broken a wing. Rakkaan rolled her starboard shoulder as surreptitiously as possible between downward thrusts before powering back up.

After almost another hour of tortuous work, Rakkaan decided to explore the island she had come to call Young'un. The waters there were tempting, and the countless ancient sea stacks begged to be explored. So as she finished the last exercise, she banked toward the lush miniature island.

The sun had finally decided to make an appearance, ducking out from behind a cloud and leaving the small landscape dappled with heavy shadows and flashes of warm light. As Rakkaan wheeled above the beach, she caught a good view of most of the rock spires, which positively glowed as the sun's rays slipped off their dark greyish hides. Maybe the light wasn't as bad as Rakkaan had come to believe. Surely something as beautiful as this—dappled forests, rock and all—couldn't be _that_ bad. Unable to resist the urge any longer, Rakkaan roared in joy and twisted to her port side, testing everything she could possibly think of. Agile as a mountain cat, she wove between the giant rock columns, climbing, dipping and twirling to her heart's content. The pain blurred with her adrenaline; it barely made its presence noticed. A thrilling jolt rushed through her being every time one of her wingtips brushed rock, encouraging her to manoeuvre more precisely. She could feel it in her bones; not long ago she would have crash-landed by now. Each change in direction made her heart sing, and when she finally came to rest on the tallest column, she stared out at the vast blue nothing that bled slowly into the sky, blurring the horizon. She just sat, lost in non-existent thoughts as the ferocious winds whipped at her tail.

* * *

 _'_ _No, no, no. You need to flatten yourself completely if you want a clean dive.'_

 _Rakkaan sighed, shaking salty water from her wings. 'I know, Kell. I just—'_

 _'_ _Well it sure doesn't look like you're paying attention!' he bellowed. 'Bloody hatchlings and their—' Muttering under his breath, the massive dragon lumbered away, aiming for a drier outcrop._

 _'_ _Kell!' Rakkaan shrieked in mock distress. 'Don't swear in front of dragonets! It's bad manners.' The comparatively tiny Fury pouted, knowing full well that she had cornered the beast. 'And I am_ not _a hatchling!' she added spitefully. Kell spun abruptly, hissing low in his throat, his face an unreadable mask of_ deadly _. Slowly, he stalked closer, side-stepping in that odd gait he used sometimes. It was his I'm-stalking-something-potentially-dangerous-or-interesting kind of gait. Rakkaan froze mid-step, port fore-paw poised above the ground, claws extended, wings half spread in defence. Rakkaan watched his advance warily, starting to growl in her hatchling voice. She made a move once he loomed uncomfortably close._

 _'_ _Rawr!' The small hatchling pounced onto his head, giving a solid kick—well, as solid as it can get for something so small—before she leapt up and away from her mentor's swinging fore-paw. She twisted in mid-air, gathering as much power as she could before flattening herself and plunging toward the tumultuous spray of salt water below them. She hit the water at a good angle, slipping down a building wave before going under with her eyes shut. She felt her second eyelids slide over her eyes automatically, and opened her main ones. The current dragged her heavily along, and Rakkaan fought to break free of it, swimming deeper. After what felt like an eternity of ducking and floating and spinning effortlessly in her underwater kingdom, her lungs began to ache. Sighing mentally, the young dragoness powered to the surface, gliding shakily before hitting the outcrop._

 _'_ _Good,' was all Kell said for a while as he lounged near the panting Rakkaan. When she had regained her breath, she flounced over and curled up beside him._

 _'_ _Really?'_

 _'_ _Yes, little one, that was a good dive. You'll be catching your own food in no time.'_

 _'_ _Cool,' the little Fury murmured, smiling up at her father's hatch-mate._

* * *

Rakkaan grumbled at the memory, her tail lashing of its own accord. She felt subtle rage building in her gas chamber, but was then reminded of food, and she rose stiffly. To relieve the build-up, Rakkaan fired a small flame that scorched a patch of moss. Boldly the dragoness strolled toward the highest part of the land-bound sea stack, pausing to glance casually at the ground. She let herself fall off the edge, catching herself just before the she went through the layer of ground-air and pulling up high above the island. As she circled above Young'un, she almost regretted her schedule. The calm ocean still begged to be played in, and the trees to be clambered on, and the sand to be kicked up and swirled and snoozed on. Of course, her gas chamber boiled to reprimand her for neglecting its starving companion, and she turned back for her home. Rakkaan impatiently set a course for the lake on her island and pumped her wings hard and strong, driving away from the island.

When she reached the lake she hollered like a demon, swooping and thrashing in mid-air as she began to lose control. Every time she spotted her reflection in the water she dived at it, shrieking, before smashing her tail through the image and going into another episode. _Kell_. She looked too much like her father, who was nearly identical to him. The only thing she had inherited from her mother was her slenderness and time-changer eyes. But Rakkaan wasn't considering this. She saw that image, and horrid things tore apart her rationality. All she knew was black rage and the repetitive image the water flashed at her.

It was nearly an hour before Rakkaan's anger was exhausted. It slipped away to nurse itself in some dark fathomless cave in her mind, and she began to fish. The dragoness successfully ignored the ugly scorch marks and blast areas, even when she threw her first fish to the shore and it came to rest near one.

The memory continued to flash by as Rakkaan repeatedly ripped through the lake's surface, never failing to bring back a fish. _Kell._ The name rang out every time the water thundered around her ears. Desperate, she forced herself to think about something else other than her little . . . incident. She definitely preferred swimming in fresh water. It was clear and smooth and predictable, whereas the ocean was cloudy and sharp and left her covered in crystallised salt, with near-constant, battering waves and suspicious, twisting currents.

Rakkaan snarled as she powered out of the water once more, batting her newest prize over to the stash she had gathered. Her memories twisted, and suddenly more pieces of her life with Kell resurfaced. She barely waited until the ripples had calmed before blindly plunging into the cold water again, seeking for some way to escape the nightmarish memories before she lost it totally.

After she had brought up about thirty, she pinched four as a snack and carted the rest to a cave adjacent to hers. She dumped the prizes in a pool she had created previously, pleased that her stock was replenished. She gulped down the four and contemplated returning to Young'un, but eventually decided against it in favour of a nap. Besides, she really needed to clear her head. Rakkaan wobbled and staggered into her sleeping cave and curled up on the blackened stone floor. Her thoughts wandered back to Young'un as she lay there. It was a nearly irresistible temptation, with the idea of its sands and grounded sea stacks and tiny forest.

Her decision was probably a good one; eyes that shone an acidic green had followed her all the while she had been there.

* * *

 **A/N; Any guesses on who the eyes belong to? I'd love a little feedback on this update.**

 **Anyway, you'll find that out next chapter. Please, stick around, stay _awesome_ , and _review as if there is no tomorrow!_**

 **Spirit of Fury**

 ** _Hi, it's me again, Rakkaan. As much as I would adore telling you who those particularly han- um,_ interesting _eyes belong to, Imagination made me swear to secrecy._**

 ** _Imagination is such a bummer some days._**

 ** _Oh well, that's Fury's problem to deal with, not mine._**

 ** _Also, in case Fury didn't mention, there is a new character popping up in the next chapter! Yay!_**

 ** _Rakkaan_**


	3. Stratosphere

**Disclaimer; I do not own How To Train Your Dragon *sheds a solitary tear***

 **Claimer; However, I do own my OCs, _most_ of the dragon anatomy and the lullaby. Suck it up, people, but ask if you want to use something (which I highly doubt).**

* * *

 **Geez, Louise! Three chapters up already.**

 **I really should stop procrastinating about finishing chapter ten, but with the timetable roll-over for next year looming closer, I haven't really been able to calm down enough to let the creative juices flow.**

 **Lame excuse, huh?**

 **Anyway, thanks to all the reviewers who actually bothered to leave a comment. I love you guys!**

 **This chapter is dedicated to; The Lightning Phoenix - My deepest feelings of gratitude for the help you have given me over the last few days.**

 **Check out her story, _Darker than Night_. I promise you won't be disappointed!**

 _ **She's right, you know. I'm not even in that story, and its still cool.**_

 **Of course you think its cool, Rakkaan. Your muscled fly-or-die friend is there.**

 _ **Watch what you say, Fury.**_

 **Yeah, yeah.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 3 - Stratosphere**_

It had been five days since the young Fury had played on the small island. Five days since he had sat within firing range of her. Yet he couldn't bring himself to chase her off the main island; his island. She was innocent, and terribly sad. He just couldn't do away with someone who so desperately needed a home . . . or, he thought she did. He could feel the emotions roiling beneath her steel-hard will. It made him wonder what could have possibly happened to make her that way.

Curse his sense of curiosity. Where in hell did his cold, murderous streak go when he needed it? He had finally worked up the nerve to sneak over and watch her for a day. _Learn her routines, her weaknesses,_ one part of him insisted. Another contradicted it smugly. _**Yeah, right. You just think she's cute, you creepy stalker**. Shut up._ So, here he was, perched in a thick cluster of trees, peeking out as she dove and looped and spiralled and hovered and powered backwards and repeated the process. Apparently, she liked to keep in shape. He was amazed at the level of control she possessed. While most Furies were taught to fly properly from around the age of three, they rarely had this of control or prowess. He himself was nine, and having been trained by what _had_ to be the strictest guardian ever, had always strived for perfection, which was why he hadn't been caught yet. Her overlong wings and tail gave her an edge, and her slender, lightweight build only added to her speed. He watched her muscles strain and heave as she launched into a flip, actually daring to spin towards the end of the loop. For a few seconds, she flew up-side-down, swiping at an imaginary foe before flipping over and tilting into a steep dive.

As she soared upward again and began to dart down in choppy movements, it dawned on him the dragoness couldn't be more than seven or eight. The knowledge made him appreciate her aerial skill even more. Watching the slim creature above him in motion was almost hypnotic. She could slip through the air currents with a grace he could swear he had never seen. Despite her overlong limbs, everything seemed perfectly proportioned. She belonged to the air. He couldn't imagine the dragoness any other way. Her scales, though not metallic, shimmered in the sunlight like liquid darkness. Not even a blast of ice or fire from one of the Great Dragons could have torn his gaze away from the magnificent Fury.

There was no way he could keep the thoughts at bay. She was just . . . well, he didn't know what to call her. Amazing? No, it wasn't enough. Astounding, perhaps? That didn't seem to fit either. He thought for a moment, but nothing really seemed to match the speeding sliver of darkness.

Eventually, the male stopped and looked on. His mind began to fill with a welcome blank nothing, save for the forever-imprinted image of the only female Fury he had seen for three years.

The nine-year-old was jolted back into focus when his target pulled out of her stop-start dive routine and climbed at nearly impossible angles, spinning around herself instead of spiralling. She was soon well clear of the mountain-top and showed no signs of stopping as her huge bat-like wings pumped steadily. He was having trouble seeing her small form through the foliage and the clouds she had just entered. A tense moment of silence followed. He froze with it, but then his ears perked, flicking and swivelling to catch the noise.

'By my talons!' he murmured in shock as the trademark whistle trilled louder and louder, yet held off from whumphing as the dragoness refrained from breaking the sound barrier. He watched in growing horror as she descended closer to the mountain peak than even an adult male would have dared. Thirty theifirs, twenty, ten. Only a few spans from the peak she shrieked, though in joy or terror he wasn't sure, and then her tailfins suddenly came into view, flared and bent slightly to cause as much drag as possible. Her monstrous wings opened with a distinct snap of air, and so she plummeted, even her secondaries stretch as far and taut as possible. He barely realised her change in angle until she rocketed past the top of the mountain, flapping her wings in long, powerful strokes. As she got closer, he realised he had held his breath, and went even stiller, eyes half shut to keep them from exposing his position. He could almost feel her gaze . . . and it slipped right past him. He nearly growled in confusion as the young dragon swooped gracefully past, humming loudly in joy.

He was surprised that he recognised it. An old song his mother had sung to him when he was just a hatchling. The lyrics flowed back, quickly slipping to keep time with the looping dragoness' tune, his mother's deep lilt echoing eerily in his head.

 _Maybe one day, far from here_

 _As you fly through the stratosphere._

 _You'll look back; see what you have left_

 _With each day passing, each night's theft._

 _Spread your wings and take to air_

 _Through your dreams soar without a care._

 _And when the stars shine far and bright_

 _I'll still be with you through the night._

 _Don't look back now, soldier on_

 _For your heart is true and your will is strong._

 _Spread your wings and take to sky_

 _Join the bravest of brave as they fly._

He couldn't remember the end. His dead mother's voice trailed off and snapped as the stranger flew away, taking her song with her. He was transfixed. His brain didn't seem to connect with his body, no matter how much it screamed and ordered that he move away. Numb tingling spread through his limbs, and for a moment he was certain that his tail had fallen off. Only when the black shape had disappeared into the mountain did his body obey, though sharp needle-like jabs shot up from his pads as he jumped down from the branch. He shook violently and rubbed against the tree-trunk to bring back the feeling in his starboard wing. With a final glance at the mouth of the female's cave, he sprinted down to the cover of the sea of green lapping at the mountain's heels. He knew every tree, every hole and every hiding place in this area. She wouldn't find him if he stuck around for a few days. After all, she had been here for no more than a moon cycle.

He had grown up here.

In a quick decision, he chose the most protected hidey-hole near the lake, once more watching the dragoness as she fished for her dinner. Her dive technique seemed strange; it was like nothing he had ever seen in a Fury. Instead of perching on a limb or playing 'big black boulder' over the water, she hovered a distance above its clear surface like one of the hawks from the south. Once she had spotted a fish, a simple twist and a flat dive later it was in her talons and deposited near him. She came in at an angle steep enough to see clearly and provide no escape, yet shallow enough to penetrate the water as easily as possible. The way she went from silent and looming to a deadly bolt of black precision amazed him.

With that realisation, he decided he would name the stranger. The idea crept up on him like a mountain cat stalking prey; it happened before he knew what had hit him. The female went from being a nameless threat to someone, someone he felt he could know, even if he never revealed himself to her. So he named her Nuoli, for the way she flew. The rest of the afternoon he followed her, watching her every move, stirred her up a little, and then watched her some more.

He tailed Nuoli once more to the foot of the mountain, glaring after her as she ducked in to the cave, where he could no longer see her. She stayed there for a long time. Long enough that he decided to have a quick nap, which was probably what she was doing.

* * *

The faint sound of wingbeats startled him awake, and he instinctively leapt into a defensive position, wings flared and teeth flashing, eyes narrow. The growl died in his throat as he saw Nuoli flying off. He scolded himself for his foolishness and followed her, hugging the tree-line as she flew for the jagged maze of rock by the beach, clearly interested in it.

As he ran, his thoughts wandered, replaying the dream in his mind. Stupid happiness leaked through him as he purred. It had been a very good dream. Still, he was fairly sure that humans weren't much of a challenge, but who really cared when they were that much fun to outsmart.

He purred again, flying low to catch up with the speeding Nuoli.

* * *

He learned a great many things in that day. But the strangest of all happened as darkness fell. She didn't immediately return to her cave, instead curling up on a small, sandy outcrop overlooking the waves crashing into the beach. He perched precariously on top of a jagged boulder that seemed to point to the sky, hidden just out of view by its craggy and twisting surface. Granted, bits of his wings and ears refused to remain out of sight, no matter how tight he folded them back. It was even harder to concentrate on stealth when he heard Nuoli's voice. It was soft, like summer rain, and the tones seemed to fit her so perfectly. Some of her words swooped and hissed strangely, adding an exotic flare rare in the northern continents. Apparently, she was sad, judging by the way her wings hung limp and her tail trailed aimlessly across the ground. Her ear flaps flickered angrily in accompaniment to some of the harsher tones, so there was no denying that whatever she said was stirring up anger as well.

He caught snatches of her mumbled conversation. 'Why . . . you leave . . . alone . . . I can't do . . . anymore . . . I need . . . a real . . .' She chattered on, most likely lecturing the ocean on how horrible life was to her. He was starting to zone out when a single word nearly had him running for cover. "Vihreä . . ." She growled something about sleep, but he paid no heed to her.

 _Crap._ He felt like his soul had been scrunched into a too-small space and thrown down the ever-present mountain. His heart hammered hard against his chest, and he was surprised that her sensitive black ears didn't pick up on it. With a tremendous force of will, he quieted it, holding his breath and not daring to peek over the top of the rock.

The pair of dragons – oblivious and terrified respectively – sat in silence until the moon had risen. By then, he had stuck his head up to watch Nuoli again, who was staring sadly at the moon. She started to hum the song again, smooth and barely audible, like she was singing a new hatchling to sleep.

Suddenly, Nuoli chose to sing the last stanza.

 _Spread your wings and take to sky_

 _Join the bravest of brave as they fly._

Not for the first time that day, the owner of the islands was mesmerised by the intruder.

 _Because one day, far from here_

 _You will fly through the stratosphere…_

Nuoli's carolling tune trailed off with a sigh, and the dragoness stood, her wings sweeping up with the last note. With a small hop, she was over the edge and steadily winging her way to the cave. He just sat on his rock, staring after her dark shape even though it had long since disappeared. When the moon was high, he slid off it, coiling up in the hollow she had lain in. His thoughts rolled madly around in his head. They were so fast and numerous that he couldn't sort out what they actually were. But as the moon erupted from behind a cloud, so did the most important question. Who is she? The one thing he would never be able to fully deduce.

The male lay awake for many hours, watching the liquid movement of the ocean before him. There was something nearly magical about it this night. Everything seemed sharper, like no detail would escape his attention. He watched the water and learned its patterns, the fantastic displays of silvery brilliance growing with the waves. It was nearly as mesmerising as Nuoli. _Oh, how her scales would sparkle in such a light— **wait! What in the name of the gods are you thinking? She is an invader.** Never mind, it's just . . . **Oh, stars help you, you pathetic idiot.** Hrrph!_

Eventually, his now yellow eyes closed, leaving him to dream.

* * *

 **A/N; Yay! New character! If I resist temptation, Chapter 4 will be up early-mid next week.**

 **Yes, I did accidentally quote a line from a Dolly Parton song (see if you can guess it).**

 **Oh, and because one or two people asked, some Fury names and terms in this story are translations from Finnish.**

 **For example;**

 **Vihreä - green**

 **The gods names (because they come into this story a little later) will most likely mean something related to their legendary traits, and will mostly be in what I have dubbed the "common tongue."**

 _ **Oh, and my name means "beloved" in the Fury tongue.**_

 **Oh, shoo, Rakkaan! You interrupted me!**

 _ **Sorry. *stalks off into the shadows***_

 **Ok, one last thing people. Please-**

 _ **Review or she'll sic me on you!**_

 **Rakkaan!**

 _ ***flies away laughing***_


	4. Island Watch

_**Disclaimer; I don't own HTTYD. Do we really need to rub it in?**_

 _ **Claimer; I do own the made-up terms of measurement, both time and actual length. In case you didn't know, a theifir is roughly 56 feet, a span varies depending on the dragon (slang for wingspan), and a Pattern is what us clever humans call a season. Tell me if something should be explained.**_

* * *

 **Look, more than a few people have stated the same thing. "This is a little hard to follow." That's when I realized something. I never gave any of you something to base off.**

 **So, to clarify.**

 **When ever there is one of those amazing line thingies (like the one that separates this and the disclaimer), it signifies one of several things.**

 **1\. Change in POV, either from character to character, character to narrator and vise versa.**

 **2\. Time lapse of over three hours.**

 **3\. Major change in environment or situation.**

 **4\. Dreams (represented in majority** _ **italics**_ **).**

 **5\. Flashbacks (also represented in majority _italics_ ).**

 **Also, when I majority italics, I mean that the usual definition of emphasis words is switched.**

 **Thought patterns are shown as italicised lines of speech, without speech marks.**

 **Are we all clear now?**

 **More than likely not, but oh well.**

* * *

 **I dedicate this chapter to Kenraali, the Finnish powerhouse of amazing. Check out his story! I salute you, general!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 4 – Island Watch**_

Rakkaan wasn't stupid.

She knew someone was on her islands; perhaps not always the main one, but it was definitely there. And it was _definitely_ keeping tabs on her.

She had been conscious of its eyes ever since the full moon, when she had really used her voice to sing. It had been so long; Rakkaan felt as if the voice that had risen from her throat that night wasn't really hers anymore. It wasn't as though she was very talkative. It had changed too. The last time she had said anything more than a sentence or two it was awkwardly pitched and childish; a hatchling's voice. There was a new _thrum_ in her tone which made her sound more . . . mature, she guessed. The Fury was glad that she had gotten it out—it had been haunting her for a good while—even if her audience consisted of a potential threat and the ominous heavenly bodies staring down from above. She felt exposed, as if she had been singing her soul away, but still, it had felt wonderful. That night she had been constantly aware of his eyes, inspecting every inch of her being, analysing the way she moved, her patterns too . . .

She was certain that he—or she—had sat only a few spans from her. What was annoying was the fact that over the space of a week, she had found no trace of its existence. Not even a scent! It was starting to mess with her head.

But the moon was nearing darkness. Just two days until the real hunt began. Two days until she found and unmasked her mystery dragon. When the moon was gone, she would make an appearance. As she hoped it would, the stranger would most likely be there, studying her. Rakkaan grinned savagely. She had plotted the most advantageous spots possible, spent hours surreptitiously scouring the main island for them. Rakkaan knew all she had to do was be patient. The time would come. Still frustrated, the dragoness stretched like a cat, gave a violent shudder and noted that she almost touched the walls with her extended wings. Rakkaan flicked her tail imperiously, clamping down on the wince before lunging out of the cave and twisting to land on the steep patch of rock above her. With near perfect ease she clambered and swung her way up to a small plateau, off to the eastern side of her cave. She didn't have to go up far, but the craggy expanse of impenetrable rock surrounding it made for a great workout. She revelled in the feel of the unforgiving stone beneath her talons, loved the knowledge that she could plummet to her death if she failed. The tingle of pain at the base of her claws merely sparked her determination. Then, with a final leap, her pads met dirt. Rakkaan curled her tail around herself as she sat under the east-facing tree.

For a while she let herself relax, sitting quiet as the sun crept sluggishly into the air. She let her worries melt away with the faint heat of the sun, tensing and relaxing her muscles methodically. The sky erupted in a blaze of pale pinkish light, framed by the washout blue of the morning sky and tinted with the occasional flare of orange. The sun was gorgeous that morning, bordered by the white halo it always wore and surrounded by the soft colours of the dawn.

It had to be one of the prettiest sunrises she had ever seen; clouded only by the knowledge of the stranger on her islands. A scowl rippled across her features. Once the great golden orb had dragged itself into full view, the raven-black dragoness rose, ambled around to the back of the plateau and spread her wings. For a moment she flicked her head back, glancing apprehensively at the scratch along her tail. _Stupid rock spire,_ she thought as it prickled painfully. Even flicking the tip of her tail was made painful. She glared at the scraped and raw flesh, then moved to bring her head back around. She froze mid-twist.

'What in the name of the gods?' she nearly hollered at full volume, wincing as her new voice ground into a strained low pitch. She whirled almost too fast for her wings to keep up and stumbled toward the tree with all the wariness she could muster. Her silver-black eyes refused to stray from their particular spot as she crept closer, rocking from her hind legs to her fore-legs, wings hunched forward and ready to spring open. After a small eternity her snout hovered mere inches from the wood, nostrils trembling as she searched for a scent.

For a horrible moment, the scarred wood offered nothing. Her hope began to flicker. But then . . . she could have roared for joy.

Rakkaan knew that the scent was old the moment she detected it. Only the base gender scent remained. She was surprised it was still there, tucked away in the scarred depths of the tree. Absently she traced a particularly long scrape with her snout, still breathing in the faint tang of the male. Some of the ripped bark had clung to its brethren and drooped dejectedly over the pockmarked surface, left to die long before. Rakkaan's tale lashed excitedly; it had to be him! Wait! If the scent was as old as she thought, then . . . gods in the sky, she must have flown right over him! She didn't know much about the stranger on her island, but every scrap counted. She knew his gender, so he was probably going to be bigger than her. She knew roughly how old he was; another clue to his size. All she needed to know was _what_ he was. She could accurately plan for defence if she could fit the puzzle together.

The dragoness searched the area for a moment longer, but found no evidence in the tree-tops. With a sense of disappointment, Rakkaan flicked her wings out and launched into the air. The tell-tale prickle of his eyes was absent, so she took a moment to plaster a mask of concentration on her features as she began a series of flips and swoops. The stomach-flipping joy she usually felt as she spun and dove repeatedly was missing, leaving nothing but apprehension gnawing on her conscience. Her gas chamber gurgled warningly as she spiralled to port, her wings ached as they powered her higher.

 _Any moment now,_ the voice whispered impatiently. Her gas chamber gurgled again. Rakkaan circled impatiently above the trees, mapping out a quick battle scenario in her head. Imaginary foes erupted into view, five of them in total. Two Owl-faced Hidden-wings, both giant males, a dark green, female Warbling Spine-shooter, a massive male Fierce Flamer and a female Scent Tracker with teeth like the Warbler's spines.

The paler imaginary Owl-face came charging at her through the air, and she swept up to avoid him. His extra set of wings, usually so helpful, merely served to give her an opening as Rakkaan grabbed one and threw him away. The other make-believe opponents began to move in, and she shot up even higher. A muscles twitched in her port wing, and Rakkaan's concentration was nearly lost.

The eyes were back.

Her scales crawled in anticipation.

He was here.

In an instant the false foes vanished, one thought thrashing in her mind like it was carried on a rogue wave. _You._ Her already crawling scales tingled in excitement, her tail thrashing so badly that it nearly completely threw her off beat. She felt herself stagger mid-air. An idea burst into formation, and being the careless fool she sometimes was, she acted. With a wail, she let one wing go limp and began to plummet. She felt terror spill across her features—it wasn't fake, pretending to fall out of the sky is just as terrifying as the real deal—and desperately flapped the other wing. If she could make it look like she had broken a wing, he might become more confident. She leant hard to starboard, trying to balance her weight and screaming the whole while.

Suddenly the ground looked too close. Rakkaan screeched so loud she thought that her eardrums would burst, and knew instantly that something was wrong. She tried to bring both wings down, but the stroke was lopsided. She tucked her starboard wing—the one closest to her—around her head, and tried to pull the other back in. Her ear flaps flattened painfully tight against her head. Why was her port wing so slow?

A burst of pain showered the darkness when she hit the ground.

* * *

 _In the name of the gods, Nuoli!_ A surge of terror clawed at his chest, and his breath caught in his throat. He knew was throwing all caution to the wind the moment he spread his wings—she could be a dangerous Fury, and that was saying something—but he didn't care. So, with a roar of horror, the young male leapt into the air. He flew faster than ever before in his lifetime. Within two seconds he was bent over her, staring up at the outcrop. She had fallen a long way, and quickly. _Please, please don't be dead! We can't afford to lose another._ He prodded her head with his snout. A low, grating moan slid out from under the gravelly earth. He could have fainted with relief. Well, until he saw the blood.

It suckered onto his pads, bringing with it dust particles from the crash. He stepped back, shaking his talons, and finally saw the extent of the damage. Her starboard wing was tucked neatly under her head, but it hadn't stopped the rock which had sliced above her eye. Dark blood trickled down, running into her eye and ensuring that it stuck shut. Her tail looked like a boulder had been chucked on top of it, thought it didn't appear broken. It was her port wing that was the problem. He could only see part of it, but the limb was twisted badly. If it had been normal, the wing would have been hidden beneath her or curled in beside the dragoness' body. Instead it was bent almost perpendicular to the female's side. He didn't bother to look at the gouge running along her back; it didn't look too bad anyway.

He had to move her. She would bleed to death or die of infection if he left her here. But he wasn't sure if he could lift her.

The male shook his head violently. _You have to. She won't make it without your help._ He could barely think. If he could just get all the dirt out of the road, he might be able to do it. So he began to claw at the earth, ripping and tearing with the ferocity of a ground predator. Soon he had created a small waterless moat centred on Nuoli. Deftly he launched up to hover over her, the remaining dirt blasted out from the sheer force of his wings. Her blood spilled over the miniature island's rim, pooling in the ditch. The mere sight of it urged him to move quicker.

He landed heavily on his back paws and continued to balance as he tentatively inched her onto her back. He cringed at her port wing, which was almost un-recognisable. Careful to avoid the injury, he hooked one paw around her head, ignoring the blood that poured from between his talons. Another he placed gently over her slim shoulder. He waddled awkwardly to stand behind the dragoness. She was so _small_. With a gentle flick her starboard wing snapped closed at her side. Nuoli moaned again. The young male took a deep breath. Finally, he made a move. In one go, he grabbed her under her forelegs and heaved up, stepping onto the small island of bloody dirt. In another second, he hefted her up again, jumping with all the force he could muster and beating his wings like a crazy dragon. For a gut-twisting moment, he felt the tug of the ground-air layer, but then he was airborne, with the injured female dangling beneath his head.

He swallowed back a cry of fear and angled toward the lake.

When he had set the dragoness in the water she had hissed, and nearly awoken. After a few moments though, she relaxed into a stupor once more. He proceeded to properly clean her many wounds, some deep and narrow, others broad and shallow. There was so much blood. The water around her turned crimson as the oily liquid slid from her scales. Despite the twisted agony written across her unconscious face, he forced himself to scrape off the dirt and mud. He bathed her until he couldn't stand the sight of her injuries any longer, licking them to add a protective coating. It was hard not to notice the array of tiny, jagged scars marring her hide. Once he was fairly sure that everything was sealed, he dragged the battered dragoness out of the water. She groaned, louder than anything before. He decided to take the opportunity.

'Uh, little one,' he fumbled with the words. It wasn't like you told someone they'd broken their wing and you patched them up while they were unconscious. 'Little one, wake up. You had, uh, a bit of an, um, accident.' She groaned again, though she didn't seem to be awake. 'Come on, please. I don't want you to die before I can say hello.' _Stupid, stupid, stupid._ Then, much to his surprise, she spoke.

Her voice was raspy and filled with pain. 'T- Tulinen? What happened?' One eye cracked open, revealing a silvery orb of colour. It looked bleary, like she wasn't seeing straight. 'Am- Am I, dead?'

The young male anxiously cleared his throat. 'Uh, I'm not sure who Tulinen is, but I'm alive, so you must be too. You sort of fell out of the sky. I, uh, I fixed you up though, well, except for your—'

'Who are you?' the dragoness screeched, staggering to her feet with a grimace. 'Answer me! Who are you, and why are you here?' Her one open eye was squinted, trying to make out his shape. The male bristled, suddenly lost in untamed instincts.

'I should ask the same of you,' he snapped, annoyance colouring his tone. 'This _is_ my island, after all. And my name is Vihreä.' The dragoness stilled, frozen in . . . actually, he couldn't read her emotion. Dragon emotions can change at the speed of _salama_. He took a wild guess, ears flattening with concern. 'Did I scare you? I'm sorry if I did, but I don't usually have visitors that fall from the sky.' Silence stretched through air. 'Was it something I said?'

The dragoness blinked rapidly, and fear danced in her eyes as they finally cleared. She began to tremble uncontrollably, shaking so hard that she nearly lost her balance totally. 'You're real?' Vihreä blinked and tilted his head. What was she talking about? 'You're, not.' She gulped hard. 'You're not, a- a dream?'

* * *

 **A/N; Yay! Yet another chapter out of the way.**

 ** _Salama_** **me** **ans lightning in the Fury language.**

 **Sorry if I left you guys on a bit of a cliff-hanger, but I'm sure you'll get over it. You're all tough cookies!**

 _ **Did someone say**_ **cookies?**

 **(Crap) Uh, nope, no cookies here.**

 _ **Where did they go,**_ **_then?_**

 **I ate them.**

 _ **You monster! How could you?**_

 ***laughs maniacally***

 _ **I'll get you for this, you cookie murderer.**_

 **Sure you will.**

 _ **. . .**_

 **. . .**

 _ **Anyway, please review. Leave a flame, a cc, we don't care. Just type something in that little box labelled "review." We promise it won't bite your fingers off. That's my job. :D**_

 **Rakkaan!**


	5. You Owe Me

**Disclaimer: Same as last time, people. You know I don't own HTTYD.**

 **Claimer: I own this plot! Buzz off, and read the damn thing!**

* * *

 **Chapter Five! Woo hoo!**

 **I know I've left this for over a week, but I've been stressing out ridiculously and just needed a breather. Since today is my Equations Math Test, I decided to get this over with. I don't particularly like people breathing down my neck about stuff like this.**

 **Chapter Dedication; The Crimson Commando. Thanks so much for your reviews!**

 **It makes me feel stupidly fuzzy, seeing the few people who keep coming back to read every new chapter. I feel loved!**

 _ **I didn't know you cared, guys! I feel loved, too!**_

 **Anyway, to the chapter. . .**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 5 – You Owe Me**_

She couldn't help it. How could she? The impossible had become reality. _Vihreä, is real. He's real._ It kept stamping around in her mind, over and over. This had to be a dream. But the pain, the pain in her wing was so real, so material. Rakkaan refused to believe it. There was no way that a dream could precede reality. Let alone a name. It had to be a coincidence. There was no other option left to assume in her rational mind. It was _just_ a _coincidence_ , nothing more.

Despite her own assurances, there was no stopping the uncontrollable spasms that wracked her body, and the disturbing memory of the countless dreams clutched at her heart with an iron grip. Rakkaan sank to the dirt. Her wing screamed in pain at the movement, and she buried her head under her forepaws. It was just too much for her to understand. Once again, her life had been turned upside down, and by another Fury, no less! Her brain woke up at _Fury_ , but she was simply too hurt to really care. She felt so weak, and that made her vulnerable. Still shaking in agony, the dragoness lifted her head. To her surprise, the older dragon hadn't moved. His head was cocked to one side, and genuine concern shone in his eyes. He crooned softly and sat down. A bold move, considering that she was a complete stranger.

'Are you alright?' he asked softly. 'You're crying. Is it your wing, because it's really messed up.'

Rakkaan refused to believe anything otherwise, and nodded slowly. Her twisted and mangled wing throbbed in emphasis, and she hissed through her teeth.

'Uh, could I?' He broke off, gesturing at her wing vaguely. The dragoness weighed the threat, and Vihreä waited patiently. As a rule, she never trusted anyone, but, she really needed help. Finally, Rakkaan nodded consent and wobbled over to him. She turned to starboard, exposing her injured appendage. However, she made the mistake of trying to extend it to him, and collapsed on the ground, whining in agony. She looked up at the male, pleading for him to take away the pain. Vihreä looked down upon her with sympathy, any trace of anger long since gone. After a small eternity, he began to examine it, poking his head all over the place and twisting into fantastic positions in an effort to keep the wing still. The young dragon grunted, and he trudged off, out of her line of vision.

Silence filled the clearing. The minutes dragged on endlessly, and still Vihreä made no sound. Where was he? The time crept by excruciatingly slowly, and Rakkaan grew suspicious. With about as much grace as a half-drowned mountain cat, she drew herself around to face the trees. There was no sign of him. _Great_ , she thought. _He looked at it, thought it couldn't be fixed and left me here to die._ Rakkaan scowled, glanced at her wing, and snarled. This was entirely his fault. She had risked injury to lure him in, and gotten badly hurt in the process. Now she was going to starve to death or be ripped apart by ground predators. Rakkaan was about to scream. It was all so unfair. That's it. The dragoness opened her mouth to roar, but was cut short. Her ear flaps perked up, twitching involuntarily as they picked up the sounds of cracking and fumbling. After a moment silence fell again—but it wasn't quite silence. A low hiss, barely audible, found its way to her ears. It went on for a while, and then stopped. Two resounding cracks followed it, spaced apart by only a few seconds. Then the hissing returned, much louder than before. It grew closer, and Vihreä's form melted out of the shadows. It was oddly misshapen and hobbling, but when he stepped into the light she saw why.

In his mouth were three incredibly awkward-looking branches. The hissing was caused by the tips of the branches dragging when he walked. Despite her pain, Rakkaan couldn't help laughing. Vihreä frowned past his load, and dumped it on the ground. When her hysterical giggles faded, she began questioning him.

'What are you doing with them?'

'These?' he asked. 'I needed something for you to bite down on.' He nosed the thicker branch toward her.

'And the other two?' she prodded hopefully. He rolled his eyes.

'I might need something to brace the wing against while I move the bone. I don't want to make it worse by putting anything else out of place.' he said matter-of-factly. Rakkaan wasn't too sure about them, but she continued anyway.

'And why did you take so long?' She listened to his lecture. Apparently, you needed something long enough to run down the whole break. Or something; she didn't really care, as long as it meant she could be back in the air soon. When he was done, she sighed. 'Well, get on with it, then.'

Vihreä grumbled and brought over the thicker branch. 'Put it in your mouth, and grip when I tell you to. This is going to hurt.' Rakkaan nodded and picked it up gingerly in her jaws. He left the other two branches where they lay. 'Ok, are you ready?' Rakkaan adjusted her hold on the branch, dug her talons in, and nodded tightly. 'Alright then,' he muttered. 'Grip!' Rakkaan bit down as hard as she could, but it did nothing to stop her screams as the young Fury beside her set about relocating the bones in her upper wing. Her whole body trembled, and it was all she could do to keep her lashing tail from smacking him away. Tears rolled down her face once more, even though her eyes were clamped so tightly shut that it hurt. Her ear flaps were quivering, her secondaries pressed in so close they were nearly invisible, and her tailfins bristled in time with her racing heartbeat. She screamed until her voice was cracked and wobbly. Rakkaan could no longer feel her talons. This had to be one of the most painful injuries she had ever experienced.

She couldn't take it. She would die from the pain. She curled her head in and pressed it to the dirt, still clutching the log in her jaws.

* * *

'Hey. Little one, the first part's over now. I promise you, the worst is over. I'm almost done.'

Rakkaan's eyes fluttered open. A steady ache spread through her port wing, which felt incredibly stiff. She spat the lump of soggy wood out. 'Ooorgh. . . I feel like my legs have fallen off.' Vihreä came into view, his snout a few inches from her own as he propped her head up with his tail. Another extremely bold move—most dragons were very hesitant about exposing their tails to harm.

'I'm almost done fixing your wing, but you blacked out when I was straightening it.' She blinked at him slowly, then rolled her head around to look at her wing. The joints throbbed painfully as she cast a wary eye on them in turn. At least her wing wasn't sitting on top of the socket any more. When she studied it closely, the dragoness realised how fortunate she had been. There was a great, angry gash across the outermost finger of the wing, ending where there was a sudden kink and a pool of damp blood. Just looking at the still-bleeding wound made her feel sick. 'You were fairly lucky; the bone didn't penetrate anything really important, and you didn't break any of the inner bones. I don't think we'll need to use the brace after all,' Vihreä offered quietly.

'. . . Thanks, V-Vihreä.' Why was it so hard to say a _name_ , of all things? 'For, you know, patching me up like this.'

The older male looked slightly taken aback by her words. 'Oh, it's no trouble, really. I'm happy to help.' The pair sat and stared at each other awkwardly, Vihreä finally breaking the cycle. 'Are you ready?'

'Give me a minute,' she muttered quickly, voice suddenly cold. _What am I_ doing _? I'm putting my chances of flight in the talons of a stranger!_ Slowly, she shook herself, peeling her own talons out of the dirt and clenching them rhythmically. Once she didn't feel as though she would fall over, Rakkaan crawled over to a slightly different spot. Her pads pulsed painfully. Ignoring the starbursts that danced in her vision when her wing moved, she dug in again. But he didn't move. 'What?'

'Nothing,' he growled quickly, bumping the log back in front of her nose. There wasn't much of it left; she had ground incredibly deep, and slobber coated the whole thing.

'I'm not putting that thing back in my mouth!' Vihreä looked at me sceptically. 'Don't look at me like that and do what you have to do! This burns like hellfire.' To Rakkaan's annoyance, he continued to make the face, before shrugging and moving to her wing once more. Stupid idiot dragon that he was. Forcefully clenching her muscles, she retracted her teeth and pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth. She cringed deeply as he touched the bone, nerves firing distress signals faster than she could fly. _Just get it over with, just get it over with,_ please _,_ she thought.

She yelled when his talons grasped the wing, very close to the injury. He relaxed his grip just long enough to get a hold of herself and then—

'Demons _dancing_ in hellfire!' she squawked. Vihreä leapt back with lightning reflexes, his own wings flared wide. The pain had spiked massively in that instant, but suddenly . . . the talon-sharp agony faded back to a dull throbbing. Rakkaan felt like hollering for joy. She glanced back at her wing, drawing her talons out of the earth. Apart from the red gash, it looked fairly normal. 'Wow,' she murmured.

Vihreä, once certain that she wasn't going to rip his head off, lowered his guard. 'So, now all we need to do is—'

'Thank you so much! Thank you thank you thank you!' The dragoness charged at him, wing still held out awkwardly, and pounced on him. Rakkaan began to purr, grinding her muzzle under his ear flaps in a gesture of gratitude. The hard muscles relaxed beneath her jaw, and the male's warmth seeped into her. Then she stilled, remembering who she was standing before. What on earth was she doing?

* * *

Vihreä tensed. Nuoli had launched herself at him, only to start purring and nuzzling under his ears, where the sound was magnified tenfold. She did this for a few seconds, and just as he began to relax, she stopped. Not the safe kind of stop, oh, no; the predatory kind, the kind that usually leads to violence. As surreptitiously as possible, he began to lift his ear flaps and move back. Apparently, she anticipated this. Too quick to follow, Nuoli extended her teeth and latched onto his main flap. She tugged it solidly before staggering back out of reach.

'What in the name of the gods?' Vihreä cried, reaching for his stinging ear flap. 'Ow! Do you make a habit of ripping dragons' ears off when they help you out?'

'That,' she spat back, 'was for stalking me.'

'That doesn't mean you should bite someone! Besides, I repaid you by saving your life.' He was dancing with death—and he knew it—but gods above, it was fun. Her snout crinkled as she snarled at him, silver eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. But despite all the alarms and warnings blaring in his head, there was no stopping him.

The younger dragoness bared her teeth to snarl something at him, but he stopped her with a beat of a wing on the ground. 'Face it, young one. You _owe_ me.' Deadly calm overtook the Fury in front of him, her lips sliding back to cover her teeth. Her ear flaps began to ripple. Her tail twitched as the words began to sink in, and he realised exactly what he had just said.

Something flickered from deep in her eyes, the windows to a dragon's soul. And he could only think one thing.

 _Oh, shit._

* * *

Those binding words echoed through Rakkaan's head. _"You_ owe _me,"_ over and over. Hatred bubbled deep within her gas chamber, and she felt her deadly side rising to the surface. Everything suddenly came into impossibly sharp focus. She could hear every minute detail; the small mammal scuttling busily through the brush a few spans into the forest, Vihreä's heart hammering harder and harder in his chest. She could smell emotions rolling off him, the fear, the anger, all masking one inner scent, too faint too notice properly. Spasms ran through her body like an electric current, but the deathly stillness that had settled over her only allowed it to show in her tail, which jerked and twitched madly. She allowed her wild side to show in her eyes, if only for a moment, and grinned inwardly as any pretence of bravado dropped from the male's features.

It was too late to shove it down, too late to hope that she might be able to quell the monstrous _thing_ that hid within her burned and blackened soul. Slowly, she flexed her port wing—the ache sharpened momentarily—before pulling the complaining limb in close to her side. The pain melted out of her mind. There was no room for pain once the thing took over. No room for sentimentality, either. The outside world became a nuisance, little more than a bug fluttering in her vision as she focused on her target. Broken wing or no, she could knock the self-centred idiot of a Fury flat in a matter of seconds.

'I. Owe. No one,' Rakkaan purred, and the black fury within her soul shoved her aside.

* * *

Vihreä didn't even have time to yell before the injured dragoness launched herself at him. This was not out of gratitude, though. This was a desire to fix an issue—to remove a thorn from her pads. He had said the wrong thing.

And it was going to cost.

Despite the fact that she was barely more than half his size, the impact of her colliding with his shoulder was enough to knock the breath from his lungs. He was flat on his back, and she was in a position to easily end him then and there, but no. She kicked him solidly in the guts and leapt up, opening her already glowing maw to fire a blast of searing heat upon his chest. There was such power behind the blast that even his natural shock protectors failed. It rattled his ribcage.

She wanted a toy. There was no way she would let him off quickly.

Here he was, gasping and at the total mercy of a dragoness he thought would be thanking him for what he had done. It had to be one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made.

* * *

 **A/N: Guys, am I dreaming, or was this shorter than usual?**

 **Maybe I _am_ dreaming. . .**

 _ **Ha! Did you see that! I'm totally kicking Vihreä's ass!**_

 _ **\- Get over it, you proud little shit. . . -**_

 **Aww, Vihreä. Did the big bad dragoness hurt your feelings?**

 **- _She could have killed me, Fury. -_**

 **Poor little guy. I'll go get the bandages.**

 _ **\- *snorts irately* -**_

 _ ***pissing herself laughing in a corner***_

. . .

 **Please review, guys!**

 **Spirit of Fury**


	6. Wild

**_Disclaimer; I do_ not _own How to Train your Dagon. Lay off._**

 ** _Claimer; I own my characters, my idea, and pretty much everything that does not have the proverbial "Seal of Ownership" from HTTYD. Ok?_**

* * *

 **Back again guys!**

 **Ok, so I may or may not have ditched you for over a week. I have no real excuse, since I've already written three chapters after this and nothing has been stopping me from hitting that little button to confirm an update.**

 **I feel guilty now.**

 **Chapter Dedication; _sagemanexp -_ thanks so much for reviewing! It's nice having a new reviewer.**

 **Ok, onto the chapter! *starts playing a marching tune***

* * *

 ** _Chapter 6 – Wild_**

Stupid bastard dragon. How dare he make a claim of a debt to her. How dare he.

The normal Rakkaan was tucked away beneath layer upon layer of rage and hate. She despised this part of herself, but what could she do? She would be holed up in here until the male was dead or she was pinned and exhausted. That's the only way she ever woke up from her battle rage.

Judging from the thunderous pounding she could almost hear, and the black shape she couldn't quite see, and the tensing and loosening of her muscles, right now, the Wild Her was flaying him alive. _Too bad, really_ , she thought, emotions barely awake, _I almost liked him. Oh well, his fault._ Really, Rakkaan was almost surprised at herself for not caring as much as she should. Almost. She was horribly familiar with empty hole where her emotions should be. Her thoughts began to wander aimlessly, and she found herself thinking about the last dragon who had set her off like this. She remembered his face, and highly doubted she'd ever forget it—seeing as how she had peeled that face off his skull—but the details were . . . hazy, to say the least.

She remembered the dull pang of regret as she'd sliced open the dark purplish-blue Stormy Razor-Wing's throat. Well, it wasn't so much a pang of regret as one of disappointment. The mad fool had been bold enough to challenge her, to call her those things, and even taunt her lineage, but he hadn't been able to back up his boasting. Not for very long, anyway.

Rakkaan was dragged from the memories and watched through glazed eyes as the male— _what was his name?_ —finally managed to stagger to his feet. Amusement permeated her conscience. Wild Her was thoroughly enjoyed toying with the male. Rakkaan supposed that it was interesting, but really? Truthfully? She didn't quite care. Come on, why should she? Her soul was already tainted with the blood of many, what difference would it make if another joined those ranks? Apart from her being tossed further into the fiery, endless skies of hell.

Not much, she decided. A dull spike of pain flared weakly in her mind. That was the most annoying thing about Wild Rakkaan; she never paid any heed or made allowances for injuries. Apparently, this included a broken wing. Yet another spike of dulled, teeth-grinding agony rippled through her. She _really_ should stop thwacking him with her port wing. The starboard one was fine, so why didn't Wild Her use that? Maybe it was to send some kind of message. Adding insult to injury. That would make sense in Wild Rakkaan's blurred and raging mind. Rakkaan twitched as yet another twinge of pain echoed.

Stupid Wild Rakkaan, stupid male, stupid situation, stupid wing. The list went on and on, flapping around and around in her mind like so many bats.

Aargh. Too much thinking. It made her head hurt when she was like this. She could feel her control slipping. The anger, the hate, had grown too quickly. The male needed to act now, while her control was crossing the gap, or he would die. Rakkaan knew, but again she couldn't bring herself to care. Wait. Something flickered in her chest for a moment, a glimmer of real, throbbing concern. Could she? Was she strong enough to care? Her clouded view of the world slipped and changed for an instant. She somehow found her footing, huddled deep in the oppressing darkness of Wild Her. Again, the glaze in their eyes shifted, this time an instant longer. She was sick of the endless dark, sick of being tossed aside, sick of being nothing. Rakkaan shook herself out. The glaze slipped a third time, and the real Rakkaan felt proper, explosive emotion.

Anger.

Fear.

Determination.

She began to climb.

* * *

The wild Fury in front of him paused. This was the fourth time. Her silvery eyes flickered— _a battle of the soul,_ he assumed—and she had to stop to shake her head.

He would have taken the opportunity then and there to end it, but blood raced like wildfire down his leg, and he was too slow. Besides, he might hurt her even more. So instead he hobbled backwards. Nuoli began to shake. With a screech, the dragoness began to writhe and twist and leap, swiping at foes that were not there. Her wings flared unevenly, her tail thrashed. Nuoli screamed again, louder and ran for the lake. Her path was erratic and her manner painful to witness, and all the while she pined and screeched and wailed at nothing. Through some twist of luck or skill, she managed to stay upright as she clawed at her ear flaps, still bucking and snarling.

Thankfully, or perhaps not, she never reached the calm, dark water. Less than a span away, the Fury twisted in on herself again, pawing at her own face as her muscles heaved and contracted. Pain registered somewhere in his head, but he couldn't look away from the struggling dragoness and her plight. She twisted again to roll onto her back, and he winced— _could she even feel the pain?_ —in sympathy. Despite the fact that her talons pressed against her jaw, she shot a lethal blast of energy through her teeth. It exploded spectacularly not far above her, a pale ring of smoke tracing its trajectory. As its energy fizzed and crackled above her, she stopped smothering her features.

Her eyes shifted fully. Her tail stopped in its thrashing, and a grimace twisted her features. The pain was back. Stiffly, she rolled upright, the strain showing plainly in her face, and he almost cooed in sorrow as she yelped. Still facing the lake, she scanned for something.

'Vihreä?' Nuoli's voice was hoarse, as if she had been screaming for far longer. 'Where are you?' He couldn't bring himself to answer. She'd almost killed him.

She scanned the far side of the lake for a few moments longer, calling his name again. Then she sat without complaint, despite how much it was probably hurting her.

'Fine,' the Fury hissed. 'Bastard. No one holds a claim over me.'

What had just happened suddenly made sense. She was one of the dragons who kept to the Old Ways, or _Vanhat_ _Tavat_ , and his claim of debt clearly didn't sit well with her. She had to be one. From what he could remember, dragons of the Old Ways didn't forgive easily, either. So he swallowed his fear and stepped forward, head dipped submissively.

'I didn't pause to think that the Traditions could still hold sway over the younger generations.' It was the truth; the only other dragons he'd met who followed that path had been far, far older than himself.

Nuoli whirled as fast as the arrow he had named her for. 'Well then you thought wrong, my esteemed friend.' Her tone was laced with threats and a cocky challenge. He stepped around it smoothly, sparking a new topic.

'I still don't know your name,' he purred softly.

She didn't hesitate with an answer. 'I have no name, and even if I did,' she paused to make a show of looking him up and down, 'I would never, ever, tell you.' He was slightly ruffled by the comment, and she smirked.

'I'm going to have to call you something, since you're not going to be flying again any time soon.' She bristled at the comment, rolling her shoulders too casually as the smirk slid from her face. She didn't speak. 'So, what am I supposed to call you by?'

'Hmm,' she tilted her head arrogantly, her voice laced with sarcastic contemplation. 'You could try Really Pissed Dragoness, or Flightless, or even Captive, but either way I really don't care. I want _nothing_ to do with you _._ '

Oh, there was no way he was going to back down. This was his home. He told her as much, pointing out how defenceless she was. All he got was a snarl of surrender. He raised an eye-ridge at her before barking cheerfully, 'Nuoli it is, then! How do you do, and where can a gentlemanly Fury such as myself assist you?'

She snapped back with twice as much venom as previously. 'For starters, you can shut your mouth.' Then, she spun to face the water. 'And catch a fish or two.'

'Whatever the lady desires,' he toyed, lumbering over to sit near her. The remnants of fear still raced through his head, though, and he had to fight to keep it out of his tone. If she snapped again . . . if she snapped when she was _whole_ . . . He was so dead.

Obediently, Vihreä began to watch below the surface of the water, searching for the silvery flash of water-dweller scales. He could feel the intrigue rippling off her scales. She was bursting to ask a question. Or she was just really hungry and impatient. Finally, Nuoli couldn't contain herself. She rolled her shoulders again, sat taller, twitched her ears, and opened her mouth with an air of word-stealing annoyance.

'What in the name of the gods are you doing?'

'Fishing. What in the world are _you_ doing?'

She crinkled her snout, then came back to the question at hand. 'What kind of lazy ass does his fishing sitting on the ground?'

This was just too weird. 'Most Furies, if they don't hunt from the trees. Were you even raised with your own kind?'

Her snout crinkled even more, and a growl slid in front of her words as if to say, _of course I was raised by my own kind, you dimwit._ But no, something else came out through her ground teeth. 'No. I wasn't. Not for most of my life.' He suddenly felt sick and guilty. 'But a Fury taught me to fish, and it most certainly wasn't like that.' Unable to bear the tension, Vihreä muttered something about a different spot and shifted away, wading into the freezing water. She seemed just as tense, though it was angrier, like the memories were . . . tainted. He could sense her, and was surprised when she slipped stealthily into the water.

Feigning disappointment, he made a move to look in her direction accidentally. What he saw made his jaw drop.

Nuoli, or whoever she really was, had paddled out into deeper water and rolled onto her back, floating effortlessly. She had her uninjured wing spread, all her fins flared to provide balance as she brought her broken wing closer to her mouth. She didn't wince too much—the water was probably helping with the ache of her relocated bones—even when she retracted her teeth and began gumming the break.

She didn't notice his stare until she was slowly waving her sealed injury in the breeze, trying to speed up the drying process. 'What?' He said nothing, only shook his head and looked back at the water. His attention was caught by a flash of silver close by, and in an instant he lunged under the water, grasping for it with his talons, his teeth. He came up a moment later, sputtering and cursing and infinitely more wet than he liked.

To his irritation, the dragoness floating in the water started chuckling. Vihreä huffed, thoroughly displeased.

He stalked out of the water, shaking off the rivulets of liquid as he went, selected a spot, and then torched the ground with his second fire. He curled up and stared at nothing in particular for a good while. Who knew nothing was so interesting?

Despite all attempts, he found that the tremendous splash from the lake was much more interesting than the blank emptiness beneath his eyelids.

The resounding crash of scales colliding with water caused his head to involuntarily spin to watch the water. His heart jolted. Nuoli was nowhere to be seen. Small waves crashed onto the tiny patch of sand not far from him. _Where did you go?_ Cautiously, Vihreä got to his feet. He tried to casually scan the trees and sky for any impending threats but was distracted by another splash. He leapt into the sky, twisting towards the sound. He was greeted by a black tail that disappeared into the inky blackness of the water, creating another fountain of spray. Not just any black tail; a Fury's tail. _Nuoli?_

Vihreä hovered closer. Was she ok? He was beginning to comprehend if it would be worth getting wet to save her sorry butt. There were pros and cons on both sides, but a moment later his decision was made. He was brought to a halt by the speeding black shape below him, and quickly decided to move hover higher.

An excellent choice, considering that Nuoli rocketed out of the water with a force that could have sent him tumbling into the lake. That arrogant light was back in her eyes as she smiled through the fish in her mouth. Wait, _fish_? _Gods above,_ he thought, _she has a fish in her mouth! How on earth_ — _never mind, its food!_

Nuoli twirled in the water to float on her back once more, gripping the fish in her front talons as she ripped its head off. He couldn't look away.

'Hey, fly-boy,' she drawled. 'You want some or am I gonna have to get another for you to eat?' He still couldn't understand her fishing style, but it was successful. Still, he couldn't force his male pride to yield, insisting that he could get his own fish. Nuoli just shrugged and gulped down the rest of the fish. When she rolled to dive back down, he caught a glimpse of her wing. The blood had flaked, and the sealed break looked to have held together nicely.

* * *

Vihreä only caught four fish that afternoon.

He glared at the dragoness across from him, sitting proudly beside four _teen_ fish and grinning like an idiot at him, smug joy prancing in her eyes. There was no doubt she was pleased with beating him. It was embarrassing, was what it was. She was _flightless_ , gods above, and had managed to bring up three times as many fish as he had.

Vihreä scowled at looked away, gulping down his last fish with regret. There was a massive pit in his stomach that desperately needed filling, or it assured him that he would die. He licked his lips hungrily. The fish in front of her were so enticing. He forced himself not to think about it and rose. For all intents and purposes, he looked nothing more than bored; well, that was before his stomach snarled like a bear. He winced, earning a snicker from Nuoli.

But she did something that surprised him. No snide remark or witty insult, just her paw sliding into view, shoving six fish in his direction. When he raised an eye-ridge at her, she merely shrugged and said, 'Not hungry.'

Immediately, Vihreä snapped up two of the fish, shivering as they slid down his gullet. He risked a glance at Nuoli and grinned appreciatively, thanks dying in his throat, un-necessary.

She smiled back, wild pride smouldering in the white-grey of her eyes.

* * *

 **A/N; Because that's how dragoness' do it!**

 _ **\- Why are you encouraging her, Fury? -**_

 **Because I can. Duh.**

 _ **That's right! I could whoop your butt any day, any time.**_

 _ **\- I see no reason for br- -**_

 _ **That's cause you don't want to admit you were beaten by a girl. With a broken wing. Twice.**_

 _ **\- *stalks off snarling* -**_

 _ **That's right, you little princess! Walk away! Walk away from the queen of ass-whooping!**_

 ***laughing in the corner, then sees reader and straightens***

 ***clears throat* Right. Ha-ha. . . See you next chapter.** **Review, people!**

 **Spirit of Fury**


	7. Sorrow? Pity?

_**Disclaimer; Same as last time, folks.**_

 _ **Claimer; I own Rakkaan's demons. I own Rakkaan (not that she'll ever admit it). You know what. let's leave it at a simple "I own this chapter," ok?**_

* * *

 **Guys! Gals!**

 **Chapter seven is here!**

 **A peaceful and meaningful Remembrance Day to all.**

 **Speaking of Remembrance Day. . .**

 **Chapter Dedication; Our fallen brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands and beloved friends. _Lest we forget._**

 **See you at the bottom.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 7 – Sorrow? Pity?**_

It had been a week. Seven days of torture at the talons of the stranger who was becoming almost likeable. Not quite; he was more like a parasite, albite a sentient and entertaining one. That first day had been absolute hell, what with the "you-broke-your-wing-because-you-fell-from-the-sky" ordeal, the rescue, the fight, and all the hollering when they'd argued about the easiest way to get her back to her cave, among other things.

That night had been even worse, the dark hours burnt up by sarcastic remarks and a well-placed tail-swipe, which of course provoked a lot of howling and even more bickering.

Day two had been only slightly better, the bullying kept to snide comments, growling, glares, and a swat at Vihreä's snout. When the moon had appeared in its grand darkness, Rakkaan refused to utter a single word, baring her teeth when he pestered her about her silence. However, she soon learned that it was very difficult to ignore the male. Almost impossible, if she felt like admitting such a thing. Almost without her knowing, she let him piece together bits of the puzzle painting who she was, and as the days passed their animosity died off.

Not that she trusted the Fury who now shared a cave with her—yet another thing they had wasted an afternoon arguing about—in the slightest. She couldn't rest easy knowing that she was flightless and a large male was near enough to hit her with his bedding-fire if he wanted. It rattled her cage, made every minute of sleeping edgy and restless. Like she didn't have enough problems concerning her nocturnal habits. So she slept in battle position, with her legs curled underneath, wings shuttered loosely and tail ready for any midnight onslaught. Of course, she masked this behaviour, waiting until Vihreä had shut up and started snuffling quietly before bedding down. She also made certain to rise before he did, even if only by a few moments.

Deceit. Her companion in life since she could barely fly.

Loneliness. Another close friend of hers; the kind that hovers over your shoulder constantly.

Chaos and confusion. Was there a day she didn't greet them?

But now, as Rakkaan crept past Vihreä to watch the sun rise from beyond the horizon, all four of her demons sprang upon her soul. She dropped her wings, even though it triggered the now familiar yell of pain from the healing break. Her tail fell limp onto the stone as she sank to her haunches. Her ear flaps drooped as the demons tugged and tore. Even her head dropped and huddled against her rolled shoulders. A sense of hopelessness washed over her inner wounds, drowning any traces of happiness as it went. She was doomed. The dragoness couldn't see a way around it. There was no joy left in the world, no hope, no peace. Everyone was at war with one another and she was to be consumed by their mutual hatred. She was beyond tears, beyond anger, beyond emotion.

Nothing was left to tie her here these days. Every single being she had ever held dear was lost to her. _What's the point?_ Her demons leapt upon the thought and ripped it open, pouring all the sorrow from it and sucking her remaining emotions dry.

Rakkaan contemplated throwing herself from the cave mouth and falling into oblivion. It did sound dramatic and fulfilling, there was no doubt about that. A spectacular way to go, for a flightless lover of freedom. To fall from the sky, to meet the earth that had borne all creatures and fade into the after-world beyond.

 _But . . ._ a small flicker of silver whispered into the blackness of the soul surrounding it. _But . . . We already did that._ Rakkaan's starboard ear flap twitched. Her conscience paused in its mindless wandering and glanced at the dark, shadowy silhouettes of the demons, busy tearing away her soul's walls.

It sighed, then spoke. _I'm listening._

The silver flame beyond the walls leapt into action, pacing like a caged animal. _When have we ever tried to repeat something that had failed so perfectly?_ It lifted off, flapping higher until Rakkaan's conscience could see it. The demons halted _. Think, Rakkaan. There is no point in re-attempting the impossible. Your survival instincts would kick in long before you got anywhere near the ground. If anything,_ it continued, looping thoughtfully as it hovered, _you would turn it into a near-disastrous first-flight attempt, and Vihreä would molly-coddle you even more._

Rakkaan's conscience bristled, and the outer Rakkaan bared her teeth in unison with it. _We don't like being molly-coddled, do we now? Get off the floor, dust yourself off and go whine to Vihreä that you're hungry._ The demons leapt from their crouches and charged at the silver thing. They were stopped with a snarl and a flick of the flame's wings. Just like that. The demons shrieked in agony and tumbled from the air, disappearing into the shadows. The flame winked at her conscience and dove out of view.

Rakkaan rose. The talking ball of flammable gas was right, she supposed. And, she _was_ hungry. Slightly disappointed, Rakkaan rose and shook herself out regally. The hollows at her sides where the demons hung were blank, for now. The dragoness felt downright giddy, in fact. She cast a glittering eye over the healing laceration on her back and the almost-filled-out dent in her tail, then spun and flounced over to yell in Vihreä's ear.

A tiny seed of smug satisfaction was planted within Rakkaan as Vihreä yelped. The seed's casing cracked and mixed with that ridiculous bubble of joy in her gut as she howled with laughter at the sight of him clutching his head and shrieking about how hard the cave ceiling was. Once the hollering died away, Vihreä glared at her with pitifully round eyes, begging for answers.

'Why would you _do_ that?' For a moment, Rakkaan tried to appear contrite, but all control was lost when she opened her mouth. Her wing twinged warningly as her cackling shook the still fragile bone. Her talons had trouble clenching between the spasms of laughter that racked her body, and she nearly lost her balance. Several minutes trickled by, and Vihreä looked angrier and angrier with each passing moment. When Rakkaan managed to rein in her emotions, she glanced up at the looming Fury in front of her. Big mistake. The look of outrage and embarrassment on his face was too much for her to take.

Her gas chamber ached long after the giggling stopped.

* * *

'Hey, quit it!' Water rained down upon Vihreä's head. Rakkaan grinned with malicious intent from above. Vihreä's frown only deepened as she leapt out of the tree and sauntered back into the lake. 'Don't you dare get any more water,' he called after her. Rakkaan just laughed and shook her head, charging off the hidden lip below the water and disappearing.

Bubbles twirled and erupted toward the surface all around, little silver stars dancing in the dark liquid. She rolled to watch their path upward, stirring more into existence as she did. She almost laughed when the tiny bubbles of air traced lines along her wings, the tingling sensation rippling through her as if in utter joy of the bubbles' pointless journey to the surface.

She followed the tiny flashes of silver with her gaze until they vanished completely in the ever lighter water, and her lungs began to ache. She hadn't taken a deep enough breath to stay for very long. So, begrudgingly, she turned and powered toward the surface of the water.

However, she couldn't resist gulping a little water. Just a bit.

Rakkaan gave up on the plan the moment her snout broke the surface. The male Fury was watching her suspiciously from his spot under the tree. So she spat the water back out under the pretence of ducking and splashing water all over herself. A perfect recovery, if you asked her. When he caught her eye, she grinned and opened her mouth, snapping her teeth into place for emphasis. _See? No water!_ Vihreä growled softly, his upper lip curling, and hefted himself onto his feet. He stretched extravagantly, going so far as to wriggle his talons before shaking out his wings and repositioning himself in the sun. A faint acrid smell rushed to meet Rakkaan's nostrils as he scorched the ground, punctuated by a resounding thump as his hide met the warm earth.

The suspicious composure obscured any other emotions on his face as he curled his tail around to his head, but she could have sworn that for a moment, something made his ear flaps droop and his eyes dull.

Rakkaan couldn't shake the feeling that it had been more than a trick of the light, more than exhaustion. She paddled closer to the under-water cliff edge. Maybe . . . maybe the dragon needed a pick-me-up. Yes, that was definitely what he required. As the dragoness swung herself around and took a breath, she questioned her motive. What was the point? Why bother to cheer up her captor? Rakkaan barely hesitated before answering her silent query. _Because I'm stuck with him, and nobody likes a sullen cave-mate. And . . . he deserves it._

A part of her couldn't believe what she had just admitted—no, _refused_ to believe it. But the other part of her, the majority, just shrugged and slipped silently under the surface. She pushed off the edge of the rock with her back talons, hoping it hadn't made too much noise. As she slid further into the inky darkness, heavy nothing encompassed her. Her usual joy at the feel of the cool, fresh water caressing her scales was smothered. The sparkling baubles of light no longer refracted joy in their race to the surface. There was no feel of exhilaration as the cold filled her mouth and a fish's scales snagged on her teeth. Slowly, almost snake-like in her movements, Rakkaan slithered up to breathe and deposited the bloody prey in the shallows. Again and again, until the cold became surprisingly unwelcoming. Only twelve fish; a pitiful effort considering that the stock in her cave was once again running low.

Carefully, the dragoness picked up six fish by their tails and carried them over to the napping male. She left her own by the water, uninterested in them. Whatever hunger had possessed her previously had vanished with the light in Vihreä's eyes as he'd curled up to sleep.

Her brain still battled with itself; what was she thinking? Rakkaan was almost convinced that she was mad, because when did a dragon care what another felt unless they were your kith and kin? It didn't make sense. It wasn't dragon nature, and it certainly wasn't something she would normally bother to do, either. She shook her head roughly, trying to dismiss such confusing thoughts, and sat.

Rakkaan paused for a moment, weighing her options. After a quick study of the various points, she opted for the most entertaining. There was no way one incident was going to crush a mood like hers. A sly edge glinted in her eyes as she scooped up the smallest fish and hurled it in the sleeping Fury's face.

The reaction was immediate. 'What in the name of . . . of—' the rest of his words were lost, never passing his lips. He stared, mesmerised, at the bloody piece of food in front of him. His concentration was so great that he failed to notice Rakkaan, less than a span away. He licked his lips in anticipation, but hesitated.

'Well, are you going to eat it or not?' Rakkaan flicked out her starboard wing, casually hiding the other five morsels of scaly goodness. Vihreä jumped and flared his wings, startled. His wings dropped to his sides after a terrified second, and he cautiously snapped the fish up, eyes never leaving the grinning female.

'Are you going to thank me or just stare like I have an octopus on my head?' This earned a confused stare and a mumbled thank-you. Clearly, he had no idea what octopus was. Dense, awkward silence stretched between them. After a moment, 'I'm just kidding, Vihreä, have another.' Her tail was already in position, and a fish mysteriously flew out from behind her wing. He growled in joy and rushed forward to catch it in mid-air. It was gone in a flash, and he licked his lips fervently, ears pricked in a silent hope.

The dragoness grinned at him and two more fat fish appeared. He caught both and they were also gulped down in an instant. He sat down once more, clearly content with his meal. Rakkaan frowned in mock annoyance. 'You wasteful dragon, eat it all,' she admonished, revealing the plumpest two of the lot. His eyes bulged and words of gratitude and praise poured from him. Rakkaan merely waved a wing and shoved them closer.

Without another word, the dragoness slumped to the ground and melted beneath the warmth of the sun.

* * *

Rakkaan wasn't totally sure how she had convinced Vihreä to bring her up to the cliff over the sea, but she had done it.

The sea wind roared around them. High tide was nearing and the waves were growing bigger by the minute. The sharp tang of salt invaded her nostrils, but she breathed deep, enjoying the burning sensation. The larger Fury stood beside her, his added bulk providing shelter from the full force of the gusts.

'I knew you were there,' she whispered hoarsely.

'What?'

'I said,' Rakkaan yelled, rolling her eyes, 'I knew you were there!' The pair had to shout to be heard in the growing storm.

'Oh!' he hollered back. 'Really?'

Another worthy eye-roll. 'Of course I did! You _really_ need to work on your stealth when it comes to eavesdropping!' There was no way she was telling him about her . . . abnormality.

'Ha, ha.'

Rakkaan just shook her head and hunkered down lower. There was no point in arguing with the insufferable male.

For a while the wind snatched away any chance of conversation, and Rakkaan stared out into the darkness. She could only just hear the crash of the breaking waves above the screeching air whirling around them. A small flash of energy lit up an equally small piece of ocean, so far away that it barely seemed real. Vihreä flinched beside her.

'Hey, Nuoli?' he hollered suddenly, and Rakkaan jumped. This whole secret name business was getting a little awkward.

'What?'

'Um, I just wanted to say . . .'

'Say what?' Rakkaan was going to lose her voice if she kept up all this screaming, she knew it.

'Uh, you have a, uh, really good singing voice.'

 _What?_ '. . . Thank you?'

'You're welcome!' he barked cheerfully. Rakkaan couldn't help but chuckle at his ridiculous tone.

Once again, the growing storm stole their voices, and the two Furies nearly disappeared in the inky blackness that suddenly smothered them. It almost seemed alive, roiling and pulsing in such a way that almost suggested that the gale was sentient. A nonsense thought, and one the dragoness immediately dismissed for her overactive imagination. Thunder crashed overhead, but Rakkaan didn't flinch. She sat up, the air tugging at her with its spindly claws. The icy cold bit into her, and the air begged to be soared upon. She sighed, too softly to be heard. She probably wouldn't get a chance to have fun in a storm like this for a while—maybe not ever. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't help but let her head drop a little.

Something small dug sharply into her shoulder. She twisted to find Vihreä pulling away from the head-butt. He shuffled closer so he didn't need to shout as much. 'Hey, are you alright?' His breath warmed her ear flaps. Rakkaan just grimaced and looked away. 'I'm going to take as a no, then.' She nodded wearily. 'So, do you want to . . . talk about it?' The dragoness shook her head, then shivered wildly. She could feel his eyes boring into her.

After a suddenly awkward stretch of quiet, he spoke again, rising and ruffling his wings to provide a thicker barrier from the cold. She shivered again. 'Come on, let's get back where it's warm.'

As he led Rakkaan down the rocky slope and towards the mountain, she couldn't help but wonder . . . 'Vihreä?' He grunted softly and glanced over. She could barely control the shivering now. 'Why are you doing this?' He tilted his head in that comical way of his, ear flaps twitching rhythmically. 'I mean, why bother to look after me? You've done your part in fixing my wing.'

Vihreä just sighed. 'I don't know, Nuoli. I don't know why, but I'm not going to leave you alone.' He stretched a wing over her. Rakkaan couldn't help but purr as warmth flooded her and chased away the shadows in her heart.

* * *

 **A/N; Ok, people. I know that last chapter was a little all over the place, but I promise, things will sort themselves out. I just have a roundabout way of doing it.**

 **Save your pitchforks and torches for chasing witches. I apologise for my lapse in update time.**

 _ **Yeah, the witches are over in the medieval time-period.**_

 **Uh, Rakkaan?**

 _ **Yes?**_

 _ **\- This is the medieval period, you world-class idiot. -**_

 _ **You're the idiot, Vihreä.**_

 **Come on, you two. No arguing in front of the audience.**

 _ **\- Why— -**_

 _ **—not?**_

 _ **\- Ugh, don't finish my— -**_

 ** _Your cod, yes, I know._**

 ** _\- I wasn't gonna say that, but . . . that too. -_**

 ** _Yes, Mr. High-and-mighty._**

 **Children! Enough. Go back to Chapter 1 and give me some peace.**

 _ ***both stalk off grumbling***_

 **Whew.**

 **Review, people!**


	8. Cliffs and Salty Water

_**Disclaimer; You know the drill, people.**_

 _ **Claimer; You should also know this by now, too.**_

* * *

 **People!**

 **Lovely to see you all again! I'm so sorry I've been so absent as of late, but here is the latest instalment! Hope it lives up to standards.**

 **Chapter Dedication; _No name_ (the guest reviewer) - your review made me smile.**

 **Read on, crusaders.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 8 – Cliffs and Salty Water**_

She was asleep; and for once not in a battle position.

As the wind howled and the storm raged outside, Vihreä couldn't help but stare at the petite dragoness in front of him. She looked so fragile while she was unconscious. If looks could betray a dragon's real personality, then hers were the most sketchy he had ever come across. Nuoli was a fierce soul with a wild courage and a biting tongue. Even his father wouldn't have stood against her when she was in one of her moods. He knew this; he could feel the beast trapped beneath her hide, raging inside her, and understood that what he had witnessed was nothing in comparison to the real monster within her.

 _Gods help us if it ever comes out._

Lightning flashed overhead, and for a split second the whole cave lit up in a fantastic explosion of brightness. In that sliver of time Nuoli's shadow leapt and twisted and danced, then curled in on itself and disappeared in the blackness that followed.

As he had done many times since her fall from the sky, Vihreä pressed his nose into the rock and dirt below him and stared at her port wing. She had been lucky; so very, very lucky.

Despite all reasoning, he couldn't help but feel as if it was his fault.

Vihreä's thoughts began to wander, and he came back to the sudden amazement at how soft her silhouette became when the female Fury wasn't tense and ready to spring. It almost made him laugh.

Thunder crashed and more of the deadly storm fire streaked its way across the sky. Nuoli moaned and shifted her wings. For a moment, he just thought it was involuntary. Then she whined, long and low. Her tail lashed. Her starboard wing snapped open, beating the rocky floor as her port wing pressed painfully close to her side. Her ear flaps vibrated and flickered, searching for something he couldn't hear. Her whole body convulsed. The dragoness' writhing unsettled him. Was she having a bad dream? Was she in pain?

Nuoli cried out in her sleep, and shuddered in on herself, wings shaking twice as badly as the rest of her. Slowly, Vihreä rose, sidling backward frantically as her tail swung wide and nearly clipped his ear flaps. The dark eyelids flickered and she screamed again. More thunder crashed and more fiery streaks tore rifts in the darkness. She spun and rolled onto her side, revealing the half-healed gash on her back. The icy wind ripped through the cave with enough force to topple a large dragonet.

Another minute passed, the screams getting more agonized and heart-wrenching each time. He could hear the pain layered in those grinding tones as clear as day, the fear in the outline of her form. Finally, the male couldn't stand for any more.

Vihreä rushed the shaking Fury, dodging her wings and tail and swinging around to greet her head-on. He couldn't help flinching as her teeth snapped down and she roared, but leapt for her anyway. Like a coward, he shut his eyes and prayed for the best. When he opened them, Vihreä had her shoulders pinned—albite rather awkwardly. Her glistening teeth were snapping at his underside, and that made it even more difficult. Vihreä wasn't exactly the tallest male. He had no idea what to do now.

So he shook her.

He wasn't sure why, but it made irrational sense. He lifted her off the cave floor just a little and shook, gently crooning her name over and over, fighting to maintain his balance, fighting to keep his grip on her.

At first, it didn't work. Nuoli bucked and twisted beneath him, and she nearly slipped out of his grasp, but the young male refused to give in. So, he kept calling, over and over, the same words. 'Nuoli, it's just a dream. You're safe here. The storm can't get you.'

As the last words left his lips her eyes snapped open. He couldn't discern her pupils from the irises. For a moment, he thought that her pupils were just largely dilated by fear, but another flash of light revealed that they were slitted. Those black-as-night orbs scanned his entire form for a moment, and then she relaxed. All the tension in her body faded away beneath his talons.

Vihreä grinned despite his coiling nerves. 'Some dream, huh?'

* * *

'So, what was that dream you had?'

For the fourth time, his query was greeted with silence. Nuoli glared at him out of the corner of one grey eye. Abruptly, he decided to switch tactics, if only a little.

'You _do_ know I was almost clobbered to death because of you, right?' More silence, although her ear flaps flickered with guilt. _Alright, time for sympathy._ 'Hey, I'm fine. You just got me worried, that's all.' Her ear flaps flattened to her skull, and he nudged her gently, reassuring.

He continued in his gentle probing during the entire trip to the storm-drenched lookout. Low tide was fast departing, and with each passing set, the angry expanse of blue came closer to building a proper wave. A ribbon of darker water snaked its way out into the wide open sea, leaving eddies and foam that rushed to escape its grasp. It was an ominous sight. Vihreä almost shuddered. _Almost._

As surreptitiously as possible, he averted his gaze and sat beside Nuoli, who leaned into the wind with an expression of pure bliss. The tang of salt wound up into his nostrils, and he fought the urge to sneeze. How could she find such a thing so enjoyable? He could already feel the salt particles clinging to his scales, irritating him to no end. He shook off the slimy thoughts and glanced at the dragoness beside him. Nuoli's tail lashed casually, and she flopped onto the ground, dangling a paw over the edge and peering after it.

Like an idiot, he allowed his gaze wander over her hide, desperate for some substantial form of distraction. He paused at her shoulders, lean and powerful, then continued on. Her back rippled with muscle, the scarring gash still looking painful. _Scars_. Suddenly, he saw many of them, as if someone had suddenly redrawn her with all her little horror stories attached. On her tail, just below the tiny ridges of her spines, were three jagged marks, like identical lightning bolts. On those powerful shoulders, a thin line, spanning from the joint of her port wing to just above her elbow. On her head, the inside of her starboard ear flap, were what looked like several teeth marks. Also along her back, right where the membrane of her wings met her body, was a thick, nearly invisible scar. Against his will, his eyes flicked back to that near-fatal injury. The lump of scar tissue on her port wing seemed so fragile and obvious against the stark gloom of the sky. It was hard not to wince.

The suspense was building. All those scars, all those secrets . . . He just wanted to know who she really was. Surely she had a name—that much was obvious, she didn't trust him. She had a past. His gods-damned curiosity made it difficult to sit quietly. His tail twitched with pent-up energy. Another question flashed through his head. _Who is Tulinen?_ His ear flaps wouldn't lie still. There was no way he would be able to stand the temptation. Unfortunately, his fidgeting alerted Nuoli, who immediately launched herself upright with a huff of exasperation.

A quizzical, slightly annoyed glance in his direction. 'What's your problem, Twitchy?' Vihreä growled a little.

'It's nothing.' She cocked an eye-ridge at him, her ear flaps flickering with distrust. 'Really! I'm fine, just. . .'

'Just what, Vihreä? Just. What?' Venom coloured her voice, and he grimaced under her gaze. The rising snarl in her throat was an excellent deterrent, but he couldn't take it anymore. Not when one look could force the words to freeze in his mind. He had to ask _now_.

'Ok, I just want to know what happened to you! No-one just _has_ a nightmare like that, Nuoli. That was real, and whatever it was, it scared you.'

Rage, and hurt, danced in her eyes as she made a lunge for him. Despite her small stature, Vihreä shrieked in alarm. The next thing he knew, all he could see was a cluster of pearly teeth and pinkish gums, and stone pressed into his spines. With a light buck he attempted to right himself, but Nuoli rolled with the motion like she had done it a thousand times. The wind was knocked from him as her claws collided with his underside.

And then he was falling.

The wind snatched his screams away. He was too close to the cliff and angled wrong to be able to open his wings without certainty of death. He twisted to glance at the ever smaller lip, and yelped in shock when his view was blocked by Nuoli. Even worse, she was _laughing_. _Laughing,_ gods help him. There was no doubt; Nuoli was crazy, mentally unstable. Both of them were going to die.

Quickly, her joyous howling died. The waves smashed against the base of the cliff, white foam flying in all directions.

'Hey, nosy,' she hollered, spinning to dive closer. 'We're gonna hit the water hard!'

 _How in hell is she doing this?_ She made it look so easy to spin and manoeuvre in this situation. 'No, we aren't!' he screamed back, fighting the panic and forcing sarcasm in its place. She just grinned.

'All you need to do is close all your flaps, ears and wings too! Make sure they're as flat as you can get them!' She mimed the demonstration with a smack of her wings. 'Put your talons out ahead of you,' she nodded when he thrust his forelegs ahead, 'and flick your second eyelid in!' Her own eyelid slid over. 'Ok, deep breath, close your eyes and brace!'

In that second, she became the arrow he had named her for. However, his awe was swallowed as he realised just how close they were. With a cry, he flattened and braced, just as she had said.

Water roared in his ears as he punched through the ocean.

* * *

'I. _Hate_. You.'

'I hate you too, so we're even.' Nuoli shook out her wings with careless abandon and smirked at him. Why did the gods put him with someone so infuriatingly pretty? Wait, what? Vihreä just growled at turned away from the floating dragoness. A shadow stretched over his head, and he heard a splash.

'Oh, come on.' A moment later the wave sucked him under, and he struggled to break from its grip, desperately clawing toward the surface. He came up coughing and sputtering, only to be hit from underneath with enough force to have him struggling to stay afloat.

It was Nuoli, who seemed completely at home in the alien environment. She leaned back after the collision, barely breaching the surface before she had rolled back below the waves. Another wave, smaller than the last, built up, and Vihreä managed to keep his head above water. Still, the younger Fury didn't break the surface.

A few tense seconds passed, and Vihreä whirled frantically, wings splayed to keep from completely losing control. There was no black dragon anywhere. No cheeky grin, no silver eyes, no slender wings and no lashing tail. Not even bubbles.

'Nuoli!'

No answer.

'Nuoli, where are you? Please, this isn't funny!'

Still no answer.

He couldn't see her. Not a single damn thing except the looming waves and the jagged black cliff that seemed to stretch forever.

The biggest wave yet roared closer. White foam slid down the steep slope of the water. The lip of it began to curl in on itself, and Vihreä tried to steel himself for the inescapable onslaught. His eyes were already half shut when he saw a darker shape in the dark blue-green water. Shocked beyond thought, he surged forward, his thrashing actually pushing him up the wave and allowing a glimpse of the most amazing thing he had ever seen.

The sun, pale and stark, had thrust itself out from behind the clouds, and haloed in its rays was . . . _her._ The Fury spiralled high out of the water, her wings unfurling in a cascade of spray. Then her dark head tilted back, and he went under.

Pure determination drove him to the surface, slicing through the treacherous currents with an ease he would most likely never achieve again.

When he popped up again, still flailing awkwardly, she was smiling and rolling and splashing and ducking and flicking water over herself. He opened his mouth to protest, but she stopped him. 'Nice to see you, too,' she announced snobbishly, turning her head away with a flick of defiance.

Vihreä decided that he'd had enough. With her head turned, she never saw him lunge forward and latch onto her ear flap. This triggered a sharp cry of shock from her as his teeth snapped down, then a threatening growl. Vihreä didn't deign to listen to her complaints as he began swimming for the beach, though his heart jumped in his chest when he realised which flap he'd grabbed. She shrieked as a wave swept them up onto its slope, and for a moment pulled against him, trying to drag herself off the wave and away. He tightened his grip and snarled through the mouthful of scales. His intentions were clear, _move and you'll be missing an ear flap._ Nuoli wisely stopped struggling. Still, it was an effort to pull the dragoness through the aggressive water.

When they finally reached the soft white sand, Vihreä didn't stop. His talon-prints were heavy and left deep impressions in the drenched ground. Only did his grip loosen when he had hauled the reluctant dragoness past the water line.

'What in hellfire were you _doing_? You scared me half to death!'

'Why would you care if I disappeared? And why would you want to know what I was doing?' She retreated a few steps, wings half-opening and closing repeatedly as her tail lashed.

Vihreä scowled at Nuoli, and took a menacing step forward. His ear flaps pressed hard against his skull. He leaned in closer and flared his wings in time with his next step. 'Because, Nuoli,' he spat, and for the first time, she flinched away from him out of terror. 'Because, no matter how much you annoy me, I can't help caring. I know I'm a pathetic excuse for the most feared race of dragon under the gods, but I can't stop caring. I don't know why, but I do.' He looked her up and down before snorting and stepping away. 'Get used to it.'

Nuoli's eyes were wide. Her wings had hunched forward, and her tail had stopped lashing. In the space of a second, she had gone from being an arrogant and headstrong powerhouse of life to a petrified hatchling hiding behind her mother's tail.

It wasn't any of that which broke his will. It wasn't that she was dripping wet and shaking badly. It wasn't the way her mouth open and closed in shock. It wasn't the way she slowly inched back towards the ocean as if it were her safe haven. No, it was the petrified glaze in her eyes that left her pupils swollen and her breathing short. She was genuinely scared, and _that_ scared _him_. He felt his pathetic excuse for a monster's heart melt.

Hesitant, like a bird alighting near a beast big enough to eat it whole, he took a step forward. She froze, her head lifting and mouth half open in defence. Vihreä knew what to do now. He ducked his head and twisted it to the side; a gesture of submission and docile intentions. The stiffness didn't leave her posture, but her ears twitched just the tiniest bit. He took that as a sign and advanced on her, movements slow and careful. After what felt like a small eternity, the gap between them was less than a tailspan.

A split second and he slipped close enough to feel the warmth radiating from her water-polished scales. He slid his tongue gently over her eye ridge and along the ear flap he had bitten, then jumped backwards awkwardly.

'Sorry about that,' he mumbled, gesturing vaguely at her head with a wing. He kept his eyes casually on the ground as he turned around to gaze at the cliffs.

'It's nothing, don't worry,' she whispered back, and relief flooded his veins. Silence, though not totally scale-prickingly awful, stretched between them as they fought for words.

'Hey, uh, Vihreä?' He nearly jumped at the sudden speech.

'Yes?'

'How do we get out of here?'

* * *

 **A/N; So? Tell me what you think!**

 **_I'm hungry._**

 **Oh, gods. Again?**

 _ **What? I'm a growing dragon!**_

 _ **\- Growing? I'll say. You're heavy enough to squash me if you sit on me again. -**_

 _ **Oh, ha ha,**_ **Vihr** **eä.** _ **Just because you're pathetically weak.**_

 _ **\- I am not! -**_

 _ **Are too.**_

 _ **\- Am not! -**_

 _ **Are too!**_

 ***grabs blanket and tosses it over the two dragons***

 **Right, that ought to buy you people some time. Now would be an excellent time to review and then get the heck out of Dodge.** **Hurry, before they—**

 _ **Hey, audience! Tell Vihreä he's a weakling!**_

 _ **\- No! Tell**_ **her _that she's fat! -_**

 **Too late. Every girl for herself!**


	9. Cliffs and Pouring Rain

_**Disclaimer; I do not own anything that someone else has copyright over, people. That includes HTTYD, so we can all cry over that together.**_

 _ **Claimer; I own the plot. I own my characters. Do I really need to go into detail? You are**_ **not _allowed to have them, got it?_**

* * *

 **I would like to apologize, readers. Did I do something wrong last chapter? Or have all you valued people decided to fall off the face of the earth and never return? Either way, guys, you've had me worried. Please talk to me!**

 **Chapter Dedication; _The Lightning Phoenix_ \- my unofficial beta and all-round champion writer. I could hug you, you're awesome!**

 **So, without further ado, the long-awaited (perhaps a bit of a let-down, sorry) chapter!**

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 **Chapter 9 – Cliffs and Pouring Rain**

Had he really just done that? It was almost as if he knew the pain behind the marks his teeth had so perfectly fit into.

Rakkaan couldn't get enough air. In a rather feeble effort to disguise her rather unusual predicament—since when was _she_ ever truly speechless, let alone knocked breathless like that—she had asked the question. Almost immediately, she regretted it. The only upside was that her fuming allowed for her breathing to smooth over.

'I can carry you out,' Vihreä had offered after a moment, a thoughtful mask settling over his eyes. 'You aren't that big, and I've carried heavier loads before.'

She'd cut him off. It was bad enough that he had done it while she was unconscious and critically hurt, but when she had a choice, she would keep her dignity. Besides, it felt too . . . unnerving, the idea of swinging from someone's talons without her own wings to save her.

'There is no way you are going to carry me out,' she growled, her teeth snapping down for emphasis. 'I'm not some hatchling that can't look after her own scales.' She glanced around quickly, but only saw the boundless ocean and the cliffs. An irrational and prideful idea burst into existence.

'I can swim out,' Rakkaan murmured to no-one in particular. 'Paddle around to one of the points on the island where the cliffs aren't present.'

Vihreä flared his wings again with ire. 'Are you mad?' _Wow, insulting_ and _overprotective. Just perfect._ 'It doesn't matter how good of a swimmer you are. If you go out there, you'll tire yourself out. The tide is already rising and you'll be smashed against the rocks before you can get to safety.' He punctuated his feelings with a gravelly tone. Rakkaan took a defiantly heavy step backwards. He got the message quickly—too quickly.

'I'm _not_ going to let you go out there.'

She couldn't—didn't want to, one might add—reel in her arrogance, her pride.

'Just try and stop me,' Rakkaan hissed as she spun, flicking a substantial amount of sand all over everything with her tail before sprinting into the welcome arms of the ocean. She heard Vihreä shriek and the thump of paws as he gave chase, but she followed the edge of a dying wave and dove through it. Her timing was impeccable—thanks to a great many previously failed attempts—and the giant splash she had made was in perfect sync with the fan of spume that erupted overhead.

Vihreä's voice was lost in the roar of the tide as she let herself be sucked out by the undercurrents. She lashed her tail hard, using both her secondaries and tailfins to rudder her in the desired direction with less effort. All it took was a subtle twitch of her head and a flip of the fins before her course altered. It was a lot like flying. You had to be aware of every fibre of your being to navigate both the currents of the air and the water. She stayed under for long minutes, only heading for the surface when her lungs began to really ache.

Rakkaan encountered oxygen again as she slid down the back of a wave, wings half-spread to provide stability as she strode through the water. She took deep breaths, re-acclimating herself to the world of the breathing. Like talons through soft hide, she sliced right through the next wave, the water barely lifting her immovable frame. When she burst out of it in a shower of spray, she took more deep breaths, each slower and shallower than the last as she expelled as much dead air from herself as possible. She was already waiting when an angry shriek sounded from above. With less than a moment to spare, Rakkaan ducked and rolled. She stayed close to the surface, watching the distorted shape snatch at the place she had last been. He pulled away and continued to loop overhead, waiting for her to move. So she did.

With a violent twist, Rakkaan's tail sent spray flying up at Vihreä, and she dove deeper. The water was shallow, but still dark enough to hide her as she turned tail and swam for the beach. If she snuck around the rocks and poked her snout up to breathe, she believed there was a chance she'd make it. The darkness of the salty cocoon around her was comforting. It didn't care that her wings wouldn't carry her, the currents could do that in their place. If she couldn't have the sky, then nothing was stopping her from claiming the ocean waters as her domain. Granted, the seas were unpredictable, and very dangerous, but there was a certain _zing_ when she swam out here that the inland river systems sorely lacked.

Oh, it had been too long since she had swum like this—free to roam with a way around every fence and obstacle. It was no wonder the sea dragons loved their lives. And definitely no wonder they bragged about it so much.

She stayed under, even after she found the cliff. It was safer if she stayed low in the water and as close to the unforgiving rock as possible. When she did decide it was time to breathe, the dragoness angled out from the shadows of the rock face. As she slipped upwards, there was no denying that she was well and truly out of the inlet. The currents were so much more violent, so much stronger. And when she met the wind, it howled and twisted just as savagely, beating its wings against the irrepressible stone with a deadly force. She glanced around and was relieved to find that Vihreä was currently scouring the opposing cliffs for any signs of her.

It was in this moment of distraction that an angry beast of a wave swept her along, straight for the wicked water-blackened rock. Try as she might, she couldn't break free of its freezing grip, and she knew better than to try and dive down through a wave like this. She was doomed. It would be quick—painful, but quick. Rakkaan sent a silent curse to the gods, which would undoubtedly damn her even more, but she didn't care. If she was to die at sea, she'd go out proud. Even if she hated it. Although . . . the thought of eternal peace—because any place without a nosy cave-mate named Vihreä was peaceful—was certainly tempting. Accepting her fate, and with one last foul phrase, Rakkaan closed her eyes and waited to be pummelled relentlessly.

She was correct—almost. Pain lanced through the starboard flank as she collided with the sharp, gravelly surface, and she yelped despite herself. But then she slipped past it, the foaming, spluttering remains of the wave gently pushing her back, back toward her supposed doom. The stone beneath her cut mercilessly into her scales, and she lifted herself into a standing position. The sharp prickling transferred to her sensitive paw pads, but her claws instinctually gripped the surface when the second wave of the set came smashing and crashing around her.

Rakkaan looked around. Yes, she could see it now. The expanse of darkness hidden below paw-deep water. The tiny offsets that snaked around the cliff, worn smooth by time.

Rakkaan scrambled further away from the edge of the hidden plateau, and an enraged roared split the world in two. Namely, her side . . . and _his_. Within mere moments, thunderous wingbeats heralded the male's arrival, and he positioned himself so that she might look up at him without being blinded by the weak half-sunlight. Rakkaan couldn't help but grin up at the looming dragon, who was scowling so deeply that it marred his features.

 _But why in the name of the gods would you care about his face, Rakkaan?_

'Nuoli,' he snarled, utter rage colouring his voice.

'Shush, my hyperactive _bodyguard_.' He bristled at the last words, but before he could open his mouth, she continued. 'Since you're such a pushy thing when it comes to getting your way today, I made a compromise. He flicked his tail dismissively, and she gestured with a wide and elegant sweep of her starboard wing, rising to balance on her hind legs. Vihreä followed it with one eye, finally noticing the slim pathways winding all over the cliff. He blanched immediately, going so far as to loop backwards.

'Oh, no. That is way too dangerous.' His voice was an even monotone, like all the emotion had been drained from him. 'The rock is too slippery, you'll fall to your death if you try.' It was hard to meet his abruptly dead green eyes.

'Like it matters anyway,' she hissed under her breath. 'Just scout the gods-damned paths for me, will you? If there are no points where I can get up there . . .' she paused, forcing down her pride just a little, 'I'll let you carry me up. Deal?'

Vihreä just snarled at her and took off along the pathways, scanning for possible escape routes. Rakkaan grinned. There was no doubt; she had won this time.

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Vihreä felt like he'd just swallowed a ball of rotten fish set on fire. He would _never_ forgive himself for letting her climb the cliffs. It had begun to rain five minutes in, and the already smooth rock had become treacherously slippery. The path had become too narrow for her to turn around, and besides, it wasn't like Nuoli to admit defeat, no matter how much he yelled at her. So, here he was, hovering too close to the cliff and fussing over every single detail. He wasn't sure why.

Any pretence of swagger and bravado had disappeared. In its place was a film of determination, which he was fairly certain provided a protective layer for whatever else she experienced as she clung to the rock. Her breathing came in ragged gasps as the black dragoness inched forwards again. Nuoli's limbs shook. The climb was so steep, the rock too smooth, the path barely wide enough. Despite this obvious struggle, Vihreä could do nothing to help her. It pained him greatly. Anxious, he flew closer to the stone that could very possibly be his doom. But he flew too close. Nuoli lifted her head wearily, pressing harder to the sharp black surface and digging in tighter. Through her grimace, some of her more demeaning character shone through.

'Are you mad?' she gasped, mocking his earlier words. A low gurgle rose from somewhere in her throat. '. . . You fly so much as a _talons-length_ closer, and I'll . . .' Another pause for air, and her eyes clamped tightly shut. 'I'll jump off. You hear me, Vihreä?' Vihreä risked flying that much closer, but the smart remark caught in his throat, and he backed off quickly. Nuoli smiled between clenched teeth and pressed on. The rain struck her hide with increasing intensity. It ran in tiny rivers between her scales, like one of the Great Dragons rising from the depths of whatever hellish hole they had come from. It poured from the creases of her wings too. It was becoming hard to see her through the onslaught of the downpour, almost as difficult as it had been last night. He blinked rapidly, second eyelid flicking away the debris as fast as possible. The treacherous rock turned from black to shiny with the water coursing down it. Each one of her steps seemed like hours. Vihreä felt like screeching a curse to the stars, or the gods, or to Hell itself. But he didn't. He screeched when she did, because there was no way he could hold the emotion in.

'Vihreä!' Somehow, Nuoli lost her grip and began to slide backwards. Down the path. Towards the edge.

'Stars above, Nuoli!' He tried to dive after her, but his wings locked and he lost altitude. He couldn't distinguish the pitch of their screams. Through some force of will, he snapped out of the stupor and raced to get below the dragoness. He could hear her talons scrabbling for a grip beneath the sounds of the water, the wind, and the pounding in his ears. He couldn't beat his wings fast enough.

Nuoli roared again, a pain-filled roar, and Vihreä strained to reach her. He finally made it to the ledge, and stopped so sharply that he felt something tear. He refused to pay attention, watching the rock above for any signs of movement. He held his breath. He could still hear scrabbling. Where was she?

'Ooorgh.'

Vihreä felt his eye ridge twitch extravagantly. Was that who he thought it was?

'Vihreä . . . Get your scrawny butt up here, or I _will_ fall, and I _will_ make you regret it.' It was incredibly hard not to start laughing. Cautiously, the male flapped up, spying her slender tail dangling off the edge of the rock, twitching with effort. When he reached the dragoness' eye level, it became even harder to contain his hysteria.

Nuoli was upside-down. And that wasn't even the worst of it.

'You so much as grin and I'll gut you.'

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Rakkaan was hyperaware of every single muscle as she struggled for breath. The tremors racing through her body made it difficult to move, let alone see anything apart from the small patch of ground in front of her.

Her wing ached. Ripples of fire tore up her bones, screaming in agony. Rakkaan didn't understand, nor did she pay any real attention to it. She was too focused on keeping a grip on the drenched and petrifyingly slippery rock. As she shifted her grip on the rock, she began to wonder if this had been a bad idea. Oh, she so badly wanted Vihreä to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way, but she could tell he was tiring. Without even needing to glance up, she could tell that each wing-beat was more difficult than the last. Besides, she would never be able to live with herself if she gave in to his suggestion.

'Come on, Nuoli.' The dark male's voice was hoarse with exhaustion. It must have been killing him to hover in the downpour for so long. She could almost hear his rasping gasps through the roaring sheets of water. 'It's—it's just a little further.'

It was all Rakkaan could do to keep her muscles clenched as she nodded and looked ahead. Vihreä wasn't lying—just ahead, the narrow offset slanted dramatically up. An apex, a peak. Surely the trip down would be easier.

Vihreä tiredly glided the last theifir to the cliff edge above her, giving his own wings a break as she scrabbled and clawed her way up. Despite the ever-helpful second wind she had achieved, it still made her legs shake to clamber up the near-vertical ascent. Seconds, minutes, hours, an _age_ later, the dragoness collapsed blissfully in the tiny divot, muscles crying out as they slackened and her bones barking in pain.

'Nuoli?'

'What?' she snarled.

'We are _never_ doing that again.'

'Deal.'

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 **A/N; Wow, I've really dragged out the wait on this one. I'm so sorry, guys. Also, what happened last time? It's like this story has turned into some foul monster and scared you people off! Except, well, you. You know who you are, thank you!**

 _ **It's been so**_ **boring _around here! Where were you guys?_**

 **Rakkaan, don't be rude. It's probably my fault.**

 _ **Good point. It**_ **is _your fault._ _*turns to face Fury and crouches low*_**

 _ **Shit.**_ **Vihreä, a little help? Please?**

 _ **\- Sure thing, Fury. - *flies off with Fury in his talons***_

 _ **Hey, no fair! Get back here!**_

 ***distant voice* Don't forget to review, guys! Have a nice, mauling-free day!**

 **Spirit of Fury**


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